Facebook, as a social media site, has a complicated relationship among itself, its user, and its data policy.

Before we begin, let’s look at the “Data Policy.”  According to the data policy, users own their content, but Facebook shares the content, or data, we compose (images, status updates, etc.) with third parties to customize the advertisements targeted at each of us. Anything we put on Facebook, Facebook can use. We have given away permission when we accept the terms of service.

However, in the “Terms of Service,” Facebook explains, “For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.”

So, essentially, there are two owners of FB content: you and Facebook.

Remember that when you post content: you are creating content for Facebook. It’s pro-bono work!