Woot Ben!

This is so crazy. I feel like consumerist is a cool little blog, I'm blown away every time I see Ben get on TV. So cool!

How is this (from the old ToS) really any different from the new ToS?

"When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content. Facebook does not assert any ownership over your User Content; rather, as between us and you, subject to the rights granted to us in these Terms, you retain full ownership of all of your User Content and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your User Content."

They still say that they have a perpetual lisense to our stuff that we upload, but we still have the right to delete our content. I need some help understanding this.

Wow, I read that totally wrong at first:

"Watch Consumerist Own Ben Popken..."

Maybe it's b/c I'm glass-less, but I think you look better on TV w/glasses Ben. But congrats on the coverage! Nothing beats the time I heard you on Wait,Wait, while I was out walking and said out loud, "It's Ben! OMG!".

Wow what a load of crap that privacy officer for facebook was shoveling, "we were just trying to change the words to make them simpler, oops" I guess to them a TV spot is not a time to spread truth but to cover it over with even more lies and a spritz of confusion for good measure. Just another reason not to trust them.

But of course if the major news media outlets actually did better and more in depth reporting on things an interview like this wouldn't just be another opportunity for a PR stunt.

Again, as the economy gets worse Consumerist seems more vital. Its like watching a baby bird leave the nest as it enters mainstream media

You blew it up! You blew it up you bastards!

(Now, let me post this comment on Facebook)

I'm pretty sure they said "consumerist" just not when you were on screen... I think it was when they talked about your headline for the article. Not positive if it was BW who said it though.

I just paused in the middle of the video to tell you all that.... MSNBC uses Internet Explorer!

@Nitrokart:

ooo! Let's use that fancy new exploit we found in IE7!

@Nitrokart: Not just IE... They are using IE 6... Out of date at MSNBC are we?

@Brittany Stewart: the biggest change was that this verbage - If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire - was removed. so, whereas they can do whatever they want while the content appears on their site in the old tos, the new tos granted those rights indefinitely.

@TheSpatulaOfLove: that's not ie7. that's like ie5 or (most likely) ie6. notice no tabbed browsing & the super-nifty classic windows look circa win98se.

of course, they could be using a skin, but does anyone savvy enough to use a skin actually use ie?

@Nitrokart: I've been in the newsrooms of a bunch of different places and invariably they use IE. Most of the time it's because their IT mandates it for security purposes, which is sorta like requiring cheesecloth hats for rain protection purposes.

Consumerist just blew up huge. Perez had a link in a post to it, the main article got major Diggs. Then 500,000 people viewed it. This is great. I'm so happy for this blog.

i'm a newbie so i hadn't noticed until now... omfg ben is a hottie!

@Buckaroo_GitEmSteveDave: Heh, thanks. I got my eyes lasered so no more glasses for me!

@Aeroracere: watch meg pwn ben!
it's probably happened before, but i've only been reading this blog for about a year, so...

Has anyone else noticed how similar the Consumerist's own user agreement is to the "old new" facebook one?:

Except as otherwise set forth in this User Agreement, by transmitting any public Communication to the Site, you grant Consumer Media an irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, unrestricted, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, reproduce, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, modify, edit, create derivative works from, incorporate into one or more compilations and reproduce and distribute such compilations, and otherwise exploit such Communications, in all media now known or later developed. You warrant that you have the right to grant these rights to Consumer Media and that you will not post any content that infringes or violates any proprietary, privacy or publicity, or other rights of any party or that violates any law. You hereby waive all rights generally known as "moral rights" in your Communications to the extent they can be waived, under any existing or future law of any jurisdiction.

Having read Consumerist almost since its beginning, I feel this weird sense of pride watching "our Ben" on the national news! I think we should design a superhero costume for your next appearance, Ben. :-)

Why does Meg get to be on TV? I don't think it's fair.

@Farquar: doesn't. damnit. edit button.

The whole retraction thing about "we never meant to keep your info indefinitely" rings false.

It's no secret that Facebook is having a rough time making money. They've tried some ad stuff, but without a huge amount of success so far. Other than that, they're hemorrhaging money without a clear plan to get back in the green. The one big monetizable asset they have is the gargantuan treasure trove of data on its millions of users.

I'm guessing that one of their plans to make some money is offering their data as market research. Knowing the likes, dislikes, etc. of millions of people can be pretty powerful is used in the right ways. Losing the information on people who quit would limit this a bit, so they were probably hoping to sneak that little change in without anyone noticing in order to position themselves better for this sort of plan. Obviously they failed, so now they're pretending like that had never been the plan in the first place.

The thing is: even if they had gotten away with it, I'm skeptical whether they would use the info for anything particularly nefarious or harmful to their user base. The one thing they can't afford to do is alienate their user base, because then they would cut off their only real asset. Invasive marketing isn't something that can really be hidden, and which is bound to create a powerful backlash.

@Farquar: Admit it, you're just sexist.

I actually e-mailed a friend of mine when this story broke nationally and referred to this website as "Our Consumerist." Great job, Ben; those of us who have been around for a while and those of us who are new to this site give you a great big pat on the back.

So what the reporter said at the last couple of seconds is not true. I got an email from FaceBook about me deleting my account and this is what it said.....

"Hi Matthew,

If you deactivate your account, your profile and all information associated with it are immediately made inaccessible to other Facebook users. What this means is that you effectively disappear from the Facebook service. However, we do save your profile information (friends, photos, interests, etc.), so if you want to reactivate at some point, your account will look just the way it did when you deactivated. Many users deactivate their accounts for temporary reasons and expect their information to be there when they return to the service. You can deactivate your account through the "Deactivate Account" link on the Account page.

If you do not think you will use Facebook again and you would like to delete your account, you can do this yourself by taking the following steps:

1. Log in to your Facebook account.
2. Visit the Security section of the Help Center by following this link:

[www.facebook.com]

3. Click the "I want to permanently delete my account" link toward the bottom of the page.

Please keep in mind that once your account is deleted, you will not be able to reactivate the account or retrieve any of the content or information you have added.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Tatsuya
User Operations
Facebook"

Facebook does not delete your account...it stays there till you want to come back to it...just the same way you left it.