Facebookers to be given greater control of personal data

London, Apr 24 (ANI): Social networking site Facebook has agreed to change its terms of use to give users greater control over their personal data after 75 percent voted for a revision of the terms.

The site's founder Mark Zuckerberg said the site aimed to adopt a more "transparent and democratic approach".

The change was decided upon after the website received severe criticism in February for changing the terms and conditions, which appeared to give the site ownership of personal data, including pictures, video and profile information, even after users deleted their accounts.

After consulting users, the social networking site held a week-long vote on whether to adopt a new set of terms and principles which state that people should own their own information and be able to remove it from the service.

More than 600,000 users took part in the vote, with 75 per cent opting for the revised documents.

"We're pleased that users supported the proposed documents and validated our efforts to respond to their concerns," the Telegraph quoted Facebook's chief lawyer Ted Ullyot as writing on the site's blog.

"You can expect to see the new documents on the site in the coming weeks.

"After that, all future proposed changes to the Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities will be subject to the notice, comment and voting provisions of the documents," he added.

Zuckerberg had said the vote would only be binding if 30 percent of the site's 200 million users took part.

But Ullyot said Facebook would still go ahead with the changes and the threshold for future votes was likely to be revised. (ANI)