After sparking outrage among many users, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says he's reversing recent changes made to the social networking website's terms of use.
In an early morning blog posting Wednesday, Zuckerberg said his company has received a lot of questions and comments about the changes in the past couple of days.
"Based on this feedback, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised," Zuckerberg said.
The contentious clause that caused the uproar reads as follows:
"You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service..."
The new terms of use, which were posted to Facebook on February 4, gave the social networking site the right to hang onto information posted by users for as long as the site wants -- and even after that information is removed from a user's profile.
With more than 175 million people using Facebook, Zuckerberg said the document was not solely meant to protect the company's rights.
"It's the governing document for how the service is used by everyone across the world. Given its importance, we need to make sure the terms reflect the principles and values of the people using the service," he said.
He said the next version "will be written clearly in language everyone can understand" and that Facebook users will have a lot of input in crafting the terms.
"We expect to complete this in the next few weeks," Zuckerberg said.
Users who want to provide their input on the new terms can post questions, comments and requests in the group -- Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.
This is not the first time users have expressed concern about the social networking site.
In 2007, a tracking tool called Beacon angered users after they realized their shopping habits and activities at other websites were being broadcast.
Following the backlash, Facebook eventually allowed users to turn the tool off.
