Our old friend Facebook is being pretty uptight about their privacy. Reportedly, before a recent news conference, Facebook officials asked attending journalists to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which entailed protocol that they were to follow once they arrived at the Seattle branch of the company. According to kplu.org, Dan Sytman, the Attorney General sent out an e-mail that said:
“Facebook asked me to pass this on to you. They require it of all visitors to their facilities. It only applies to things that you might accidentally stumble upon while you are there and covers nothing discussed during our news conference. Please either bring a signed copy or be ready to sign upon arrival.”
Journalists were a little upset needless to say, giving that their journalistic freedom was being, for lack of a better term, stolen. Journalists then got a little pep in their step as two hours later another e-mail was sent to agencies from Sarah Lane, the AG’s Director of New Media, stating.
“I’m writing on behalf of Dan Sytman. You may disregard the nondisclosure agreement that we sent earlier.”
So you may be curious as to what the agreement may have said. Well, partly it entailed:
“You may become aware of non-public information related to Facebook and its products, services, programs, features, data, techniques, technology, code, ideas, inventions, research, testing, methods, procedures, know-how, trade secrets, business and financial information and other activities through disclosure, observation or otherwise in the course of your visit … All Facebook Confidential Information remains the property of Facebook. You agree not to disclose any Facebook Confidential Information to any third party, and to take all reasonable precautions to prevent its unauthorized dissemination …”
The full agreement can be seen below.
If you were a journalist or if you are a journalist, how does this information make you feel? Do you feel it’s right, whether it’s legal or not, to ask journalists and media to pretty much forget what they see? We want to know what you think, leave us comments below.