From Facebook‘s Terms of Use:
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.
While they don’t claim ownership of your content (photos, any text you post, videos etc) they can use it for whatever they like, for as long as they like, or for as long as you have a Facebook account.
And here’s a nice bit of conspiracy theory about Facebook’s alleged CIA connections from the New Zealand Herald (which prompted me to write this post).
I have often asked friends if they have thought about who owns Facebook, where their data is stored, and if they’ve ever considered that it might be used for other purposes. Few have.
I’m beginning to have mixed feelings about Facebook, but the trouble is with so many friends using it. I’d be a virtual outcast if I left it…