About a week later after it started popping up on my News Feed, my Facebook friends seem to have finally realized that the ‘privacy notice’ protecting their personal details and data from unauthorized copying is fake.
The notice scam was the second one this year and started to appear after Facebook posted new privacy guidelines, stating that users will no longer be able to vote on future proposed changes to the website. Was anyone aware that we had those voting rights as Facebook users before? Apparently not.
For a few days, I repeatedly saw this message when I logged in:
“In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, graphics, comics, paintings, photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention). For commercial use of the above my written consent is needed at all times!”
The idea behind both of the notices is that since Facebook is a newly publicly traded entity, users’ privacy is negatively affected, which isn’t true. The same terms and conditions that you agreed to when you signed up for the service are still in place.
However, stories about websites like WeKnowWhatYoureDoing.com that aggregate public and embarrassing statuses for the whole world to see give users a real reason to be concerned about who is accessing their information. But posting a status does not protect your data or information.
The key is to manage your privacy settings on your account, whichis not that difficult. A handy tool on Facebook is the “View As” feature, which allows you to type in anyone’s name to see what they can and cannot see on your profile. Additionally, you have the ability to see what it looks like to the public.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the Facebook world has learned its lesson about these posts. For the future, Mashable shared some tips on how to handle the next viral outbreak. Take a look!
-Elisa Graciaa – @elisaaaag
