Facebook Withdraws Changes in Data Use

After a wave of protests from its users, the Facebook social networking site said on Wednesday that it would withdraw changes to its so-called terms of service concerning the data supplied by the tens of millions of people who use it.

The about-face was made known to many users in a message posted on the Facebook home page saying : “Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.”

Read more from the New York Times.

Facebook, in the meantime, has set up a link to clarify its terms of service and invite comments from users. The bottom line: Facebook will not claim to own any material a user posts to his/her profile, and claims not to share your material anywhere else without your permission.