Fake Facebook Privacy Post Goes Viral

And there go the lemmings. Once again, a completely fabricated Facebook message has gone viral. No sooner did Facebook post its new privacy guidelines, announcing it would allow users to comment on the changes but not vote on them, than a separate “privacy notice” started making the rounds from user to user. The post included language—obviously unofficial—such as, “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).

Anyone reading said post should have immediately noticed the reference to Berner Convention, which doesn’t exist. If referring to the Berne Convention—an international agreement relating to copyright law—then the misspelling should have alerted Facebook users the invalidity of the post’s claims. In fact, the post is nothing more than a new version of an old-fashioned chain letter.

The post goes on to say:
(Anyone reading this can copy this text and paste it on their Facebook Wall. This will place them under protection of copyright laws. By the present communiqué, I notify Facebook that it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, disseminate, or take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents. The aforementioned prohibited actions also apply to employees, students, agents and/or any staff under Facebook’s direction or control. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of my privacy is punished by law (UCC 1 1-308-308 1-103 and the Rome Statute).

Facebook is now an open capital entity. All members are recommended to publish a notice like this, or if you prefer, you may copy and paste this version. If you do not publish a statement at least once, you will be tacitly allowing the use of elements such as your photos as well as the information contained in your profile status updates.

A lot of official sounding words that really don’t mean a lot of anything. A similar post actually went viral this past July, illustrating the short memory spans of Facebook users.

According to Facebook, none of its privacy policies were affected when the company went public. Users only method of keeping their information private is through updating their privacy settings.

“For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License),” Facebook says. “This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

“When you publish content or information using the Public setting, it means that you are allowing everyone, including people off of Facebook, to access and use that information, and to associate it with you (i.e., your name and profile picture).”