Beginning today, Facebook has significantly changed its Terms of Service (TOS), which has important implications for all Facebook users, but especially for photographers. As a Facebook user, I received an email about a week ago mentioning that changes were coming, and linking to the proposed changes in their TOS. I skimmed the changes and was shocked at what I read.

I am a member of ASMP, the American Society of Media Photographers, which is a professional trade organization, that among other things, is a leading education and advocacy group for photographers. ASMP has the best information on this topic that I have seen. Let me quote the first paragraph of an ASMP Alert that I received this afternoon:

“The new Facebook Terms of Use have been modified to allow the company to sell virtually anything that is uploaded to the service, including all your photos, your identity and your data. Facebook has explicitly removed the privacy protection from the commercialization rights.”

You should read the “Q&A” that ASMP has put on their website.

It is hard to imagine why this change in Facebook’s TOS hasn’t made front-page news. I strongly suggest that you think about what you post on Facebook and share this post so that others are made aware of this significant change in privacy on Facebook.