Facebook is Evil: 5 Binding Terms of Service That Should Give You Pause

April 20, 2012

If you know me, and you probably don’t, I think Facebook is evil, as I’ve said before. Any group, online or off, with close to a billion members is one I want to avoid on the Groucho principal:  “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.”

I was once told that because I wasn’t on Facebook I didn’t exist. This person couldn’t understand my elation at that thought.

She did not grasp that people are only tolerable in strictly limited numbers. As my close personal friend Jean-Paul Sartre is always reminding me,  “L’enfer, c’est les autres.” (I won’t translate, someday you’ll understand). Get a group of them together and what do you have? A mob. And mobs are capable of  the most vicious things imaginable. Except when they gather together for a Zombie Walk. Then they are just swell.

Here’s an article from Business Pundit that lists 5 sections of the Facebook terms of service that should give you pause.

1.) Facebook retains the right to use your content however they see fit, forever.

2.) Facebook tracks you based on where you log in, even after you’ve logged off.

3.) Facebook’s arbitration statement insures that they will never be held liable for any damages you may suffer from their service.

4.) Facebook sells your address, your email, your cell phone number and all other information it collects to third-party developers, external websites and advertisers.

5.) Finally, like most TOS or EULA’s (end user license agreements) Facebook can change their Terms of Service any time without notifying you.

So go ahead. Give your digital life over to Mark Zuckerberg. You can trust him with your intimate relationships, your marriage, your career, your future job prospects, your friends, your family and your reputation. He’d never do anything that might cause you the slightest difficulty. After all, his only concern is making money off you. And when did that ever go horribly, horribly wrong?

 

 

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