Facebook, Rules and Restrictions

Week 4; Post 2

The general terms of Facebook basically provide a list of rules and restriction designed to best protect the safety of users, their information, the wellbeing of their computer and experience on Facebook. The terms cover such items as

• You are not allowed to share, publish, sell or marginalize content or information of any other user
• You are not allowed to sell the content of your account (for advertising purposes)
• You must be of certain age, give correct personal information and you must not be a convicted sex offender.
• You may not use Facebook as a means to carry a malicious virus or trojan virus, harass other users and post advertising or obscene material.

Although the list goes on, unless the user posts a virus, or link to a virus, or obscene material online, there is a very slim chance that the admin team of Facebook would actually find your wrong doing. For example lying when providing your personal information; there is no way Facebook can dispute the identity you have given unless it has been trademarked. 

Facebook has the right to collect your personal information, including your activity on the site and minor details about your computer, such as the IP address, however they may not give that information to anyone. The information you provide on you account ‘wall’ is available for everyone to see, unless you have opted for a higher privacy setting.

The predominant privacy setting on the Facebook site are controllable by the user. That means that they can choose whether their ‘friends’, ‘friends of friends’ or anyone can see the content that they post. For information that has no privacy settings, such as the display picture, Facebook had provided guidelines of what they may do in the case that they do not wish to share such information. 

Overall Facebook merely uses the information that you provide to show more relevant advertising, make the post from friends that you see more relevant, make the overall experience of Facebook faster and smoother and provide relevant links to other areas of Facebook.