Chapter 4 Exercise 1

As we mentioned in the video, we’d like you to begin by reading the Terms and Conditions for Facebook. Before you begin read, write some notes on what you expect to find and how you think it will be structured.

Open the T&Cs for Facebook here: (https://www.facebook.com/terms)

When you’re finished, take a moment to reflect on your reactions to the T&Cs. Write at least two paragraphs summarising your experience of reading, what you found surprising, what you expected but didn’t find there, and generally what you took away from the experience of reading.

Now, read over one of the following summaries which have been writtn about Facebook’s T&C’s:

• Vice, “I Asked a Privacy Lawyer What Facebook’s New Terms and Conditions Will Mean for You”
• Huffington Post, “Didn’t Read Facebook’s Fine Print? Here’s Exactly What It Says”

It is worth noting: these two documents detail the terms and conditions in 2014-2015. A very important part of the story about online T&Cs, however, is that they are constantly changing (read more about this here).

Taking the Facebook T&Cs document as an example for your own posting on various online platforms (or imagining that you do) how does this knowledge change your perspective on putting your data on social network platforms?

If you’re participating in a course at Birmingham University, please share this reflection on the canvas forum and react in writing to what at least two other course participants have written.