Facing accusations of invasion of privacy the founder of social networking site Facebook has reverted to the website’s original terms regarding the use of photos uploaded by its members.
Controversy struck when Facebook altered its rules in a move that seemed to hand the website the right to keep users’ photos for ever – effectively barring its 175 million members from deleting uploaded content even if they cancel their membership.
This sparked fury among Facebook users and privacy rights organisations.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has since halted the new arrangement. In his blog he wrote: ‘Based on this feedback, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.’
Zuckerberg said that revised terms will be drawn up that will represent a ‘substantial revision from where we are now’.
He added: ‘Going forward, we’ve decided to take a new approach towards developing our terms. We concluded that returning to our previous terms was the right thing for now.’
The previous terms of use will apply until new rules are decided over the ‘next few weeks’, said Zuckerberg.
