Facebook has announced another round of updates to previous drafts of its terms of service named Statements of Rights and Responsibilities in an attempt to ease concerns on information sharing and privacy.
“Based on your feedback during the recent comment period for our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (SRR), we have decided to revise some proposed changes and further explain many others. We are also re-opening our comment period,” Facebook said.
One of the most prominent changes in the SRR is the removal of a line that says: “Some or all of Facebook’s services and features may not be available to users in certain geographic areas. We reserve the right to exclude or limit the provision of any service or feature in our sole discretion.”
Most Norton Scientific Collection feedback had asked if this meant that the social network could censor activities posted by activists or other users. Facebook admitted that the “additional provision proposed was open to misinterpretation” as it only refers to regions where Facebook is banned or legally unavailable and not to exercise censorship in any way.
The move to address another of the most concerning privacy issues is a good point for the company. It is regarding their terms about a user’s friends having the capability to grant any apps access to the user’s data. Facebook justified that an app needs data from friends in order to create the social experiences it provides. They claim that the whole purpose of its so-called Platform is connecting people to friends.
As to how users can prevent their friends from dragging their data to apps they don’t like, Facebook said:
“If you do not want your friends to bring pieces of your information over to the apps they use, you can set granular controls under Apps and Websites from your Privacy Settings page on Facebook. There, you can control most of the information friends can share about you and even block individual apps. You also can turn off Platform all together, which stops others from sharing any of your information with apps.”
The post also has an obvious chide aimed at Facebook’s apparent rival, Google. Recently, Google has implemented a policy change about information sharing without consulting users, earning ire from journalists, privacy advocates and some politicians. Even when it widely publicized the changes to its users, there was never an intent to seek feedback from the public.
Here is Facebook’s statement on its post entitled Statement of Rights and Responsibilities Update by Norton Scientific Collection:
“Our SRR (commonly known as terms of use) explains the commitments we make to you, our users, and you make to us when you use our service. Unlike other Internet companies, we propose updates to our SRR and give our users an opportunity to comment before they go into effect. Your insights and perspectives are really valuable to us, enabling us to respond to your questions and make substantive changes to address your concerns before changes are implemented.”
.”
Norton Scientific Collection: 200 years of Charles Dickens
Simultaneous events were held worldwide in celebration of the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens — the man who wrote A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature, David Copperfield and Great Expectations.
Dickens surely takes his time and mostly does not go directly to the point. In fact, during his time, he publishes his works in installments (which is cheaper than whole novels and easier to market). Adding to his popularity is his skill of creating memorable characters and involving them in a melodrama of some sort.
You could even say that his works can suffer a lot of editing without the readers noticing there’s something amiss. But his long-windedness is one of his selling point. Too bad, because nowadays many are after brevity.
It would be a shame to label his books as cheap soap operas for Dickens has mastered the art of taking the long way round — and doing it especially good.
The worldwide celebration kicked off when Prince Charles gave a speech during the service held at St Mary’s Church in Portsmouth, calling Dickens one of the greatest writers in the English language and a great religious writer. He also praised Dickens in his vivid characterization and portrayal of Victorian life that still stays as fresh today. Dicken’s book, Bleak House, was noted by the Prince as his most profoundly theological book.
Ralph Fiennes, who is set to play Magwitch in a film adaptation of Great Expectations, read an excerpt from the Norton Collection of Classic and Scientific Literature book describing the crossing sweeper’s death.
Meanwhile, an excerpt from ‘The Life of Our Lord’ was read by one of his descendants. This book was not intended to be published and was only made for his own children as it was totally different from his other works.
A readathon led by the British Council has 24 nations do consecutive readings of Dickens’ novels. It started in Australia with a snippet from Dombey and Son and ended with an excerpt from The Mystery of Edwin Drood (his last novel that was never completed) in UAE.