In response to Nathania Ho’s blog post regarding Facebook and user’s confidentiality, I don’t agree that Facebook should have that responsibility to keep information that the users, who personally choose to put publicly, private.
Prior to making ones Facebook account official, Facebook kindly asks their to-be users of the social network to agree to their Terms of Service, which include the fact that whatever the users post onto the site will be a part of Facebook’s property forever, even after deleting the account. Here it states at #4, that you’ve given up copyright control of your material, and they give the example that if you were to upload a picture, Facebook could potentially copy it and sell it without your permission as well as paying you a cent. [1]
I do agree that it is not ethical at all that Facebook would do so, but it is our choice to what would be posted as well as our responsibility to read through that lengthy Terms of Service before agreeing. I’m sure that many hastily accept the agreement and, without thought, post whatever they liked, because they believed that their privacy was protected.
Read Nathania Ho’s original blog post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/nathaniaho/2012/09/13/facebook-needs-to-earn-your-trust/
References:
[1] http://www.legalandrew.com/2007/07/21/facebook-and-the-law-8-things-to-know/