Will Googles and Yahoos give a guarantee for my personal content in their web site!!

Off late I have become more conscious of the fact that we have been loading most of our personal content on to the internet. Let that be sharing our photos, storing mails, personal weblogs (blogs), personal audio, personal video, our bookmarks, our feeds, etc. The list seems to be getting endless.

Now thats wonderful isn’t it!!.. the advantage of uploading all our personal content onto the internet is that we share it with the rest of the world and more important, we can access our data from any part of the world.

We load most of our personal content to some of the popular web services available on the web. For example, we share our photos on Yahoo Photos and we upload our personal videos to YouTube or Google Videos. Most of these web services that we use are free. Also most of them are really nice and useful, of course.

But remember, internet is not a place which is maintained by God forever. So dont expect the Internet to host your data forever. And if you want to have some guarantee for the personal data that you upload, then you got pay for it.

But an average internet home user would not go for these premium services, but instead goes for some of the best free services provided by some of the web companies like Google and Yahoo! which have shaped the Internet landscape.

For most of these services, if you remember vaguely, you would have subconsciously clicked on the “I Accept” button of the terms of service and conveniently started using it (I have done it myself). Has it ever occured to most of us as to why we need to click the “I Agree” button.

Recently, I was just evaluating my own dependency on these services which worried me and left me wondering if my personal content would be safe ? That is when I really started reading the terms of service for most of the services that I used. And almost all the Terms of Service (TOS) shocked me.

I have pasted the TOS snippets for some of the web services that I have been using. Look at the highlights.

Yahoo Terms of Service

13. MODIFICATIONS TO SERVICEYahoo! reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Service (or any part thereof) with or without notice. You agree that Yahoo! shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Service.Google Video Terms of Service 12. Termination; Withdrawal of Content. Either party may terminate this Agreement immediately upon written notice to the other party if the other party files a petition for bankruptcy, becomes insolvent, or makes an assignment for the benefit of its creditors, or a receiver is appointed for the other party or its business. You may terminate this Agreement for convenience upon thirty (30) days prior written notice. You may withdraw Your Authorized Content from public display in the Program by providing Google with a written request as set forth in the FAQ. Google will use commercially reasonable efforts to remove Your Authorized Content from public display within thirty (30) days from receipt of notice of termination or withdrawal. Google may at any time in its sole discretion and without liability to Google terminate the Program or any product, service or feature offered in the Program, terminate this Agreement, or withdraw any Authorized Content in the Program.

Google Terms of Service for your personal use

Changes In Terms and Conditions and Google Search Service
We may modify or terminate our services from time to time, for any reason, and without notice, including the right to terminate with or without notice, without liability to you, any other user or any third party. We reserve the right to modify these Terms of Service from time to time without notice. Please review these Terms of Service from time to time so that you will be apprised of any changes.

WordPress Terms of Service

Without limiting any of those representations or warranties, Automattic has the right (though not the obligation) to, in Automattic’s sole discretion (i) refuse or remove any content that, in Automattic’s reasonable opinion, violates any Automattic policy or is in any way harmful or objectionable, or (ii) terminate or deny access to and use of the Website to any individual or entity for any reason, in Automattic’s sole discretion. Automattic will have no obligation to provide a refund of any amounts previously paid.

Blogger Terms of Service

14. TERMINATION Either Member or Pyra may terminate the Service with or without cause at any time and effective immediately. Pyra shall not be liable to Member or any third party for termination of Service.Should Member object to any terms and conditions of the BTS or any subsequent modifications thereto or become dissatisfied with the Service in any way, Member’s only recourse is to immediately discontinue use of the Service.Upon termination of the Service, Member’s right to use the Service and Software immediately ceases. Member shall have no right and Pyra will have no obligation thereafter to forward any unread or unsent messages to Member or any third party.

As you could see from the TOS, none of these services give a guarantee on your personal content. They may terminate the service any time, with or without prior notice.

Now what I am trying to argue here is that, doesn’t it become a social responsibility of these organizations that are providing these free services to provide guarantee on the personal data of the Internet community. 

For some of you, this might seem like a paranoia from my side about the guarantee of my personal on-line data. I know you and/or the service provider may argue that they have the best of storage farms and backup equipment. But if that’s the case, then why are the service providers playing it safe on the terms of service.

When the user community makes your (referring to the service provider) web site popular (success is not just because of your product innovation.. I know this needs a seperate post in itself to argue this ) shouldn’t the service provider also guarantee data protection for the user who is responsible for making your service popular. Shouldn’t the relationship be mutual!!

I leave it to online community and policy makers to argue on this. But as of now, I have no other option other than accepting to all these TOSs (until the international internet governing bodies come up with policies that would ensure the protection of users personal content… I can hear someone saying that this guy is too much )

And before I close I wanted to tell all you service providers.. you are doing a wonderful job and I love your service (please spare me guys for having such a big mouth )