Facebook is forced to rethink policy

After outcry from just about every corner of the Web over Facebook's controversial change to its terms of use, the company has hit the rewind button.

Facebook has reverted to the previous version of the terms — one that doesn't include the disputed clause that granted the company permission to maintain user data indefinitely, founder Mark Zuckerberg announced on a post to the company blog late Tuesday. The change came just a day after Zuckerberg's unsatisfying response to privacy concerns.

Now Facebook has gone back to the drawing board to craft a less divisive set of terms. The company will put together a more approachable document with less formal language, Zuckerberg wrote on the blog. "Our next version will be a substantial revision from where we are now," he wrote.

The loud dissent over the terms-of-service alteration was akin to that of a national protest.

Zuckerberg has compared the Web site with an actual country in the past. Since then, Facebook's population has surpassed that of Bangladesh and Pakistan, making it the sixth most populous "country" — for those who are keeping track.

The Silicon Valley company has taken the analogy to a new level. The Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities is a group page the company created to collect suggestions from users about its terms of service, which Facebook is calling its "governing document."

Every Facebook user is being alerted to changes in the terms with a box that appears at the top of the Web site once a user logs in. The notice contains a link to the bill-of-rights group, which has begun growing at a pace of thousands of members and hundreds of discussion and wall posts per hour. Facebook continued to update the group description to clarify questions.

Facebook is no stranger to controversy. From overzealous ad technology (its Beacon service) to activity tracking (the News Feed), Facebook has a thin line to walk when it maintains control over people's most private data. Based on the company's history of responding to such concerns, one blogger for the Industry Standard predicted accurately that Facebook would amend its terms of service by Wednesday.

Zuckerberg certainly didn't take the protests lightly.

"Given its importance, we need to make sure the terms reflect the principles and values of the people using the service," Zuckerberg wrote. "Since this will be the governing document that we'll all live by, Facebook users will have a lot of input in crafting these terms."