Issue 144 - December 2012 (1st Edition) - Page 7

Completely Pointless and Misleading 'Facebook Privacy Notice'

Outline
Message circulating on Facebook advises users to publish a "Facebook Privacy Notice" as a means of stopping the public use of material they post on the network.

Brief Analysis
The message is utter nonsense. The supposed "Privacy Notice" has no legal standing of any kind and posting it on Facebook will do nothing whatsoever to protect the privacy of users. Reposting this message will do nothing other than spread misinformation and clutter Facebook with even more pointless garbage.

Detailed analysis and references below example.

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Last updated: November 26, 2012
First published: June 6, 2012
Article written by Brett M. Christensen, Steve Williamson
About Brett Christensen and Hoax-Slayer

Examples

For those of you who do not understand the reasoning behind this posting, Facebook is now a publicly traded entity. Unless you state otherwise, anyone can infringe on your right to privacy once you post to this site. It is recommended that you and other members post a similar notice as this, or you may copy and paste this version. If you do not post such a statement once, then you are indirectly allowing public use of items such as your photos and the information contained in your status updates.

PRIVACY NOTICE: Warning - any person and/or institution and/or Agent and/or Agency of any governmental structure including but not limited to the United States Federal Government also using or monitoring/using this website or any of its associated websites, you do NOT have my permission to utilize any of my profile information nor any of the content contained herein including, but not limited to my photos, and/or the comments made about my photos or any other "picture" art posted on my profile.

You are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from disclosing, copying, distributing, disseminating, or taking any other action against me with regard to this profile and the contents herein. The foregoing prohibitions also apply to your employee , agent , student or any personnel under your direction or control.

The contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law. UCC 1-103 1-308 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE

In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, 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!

(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

Detailed Analysis
This message, which is currently circulating virally across Facebook, advises Facebook users to post a "Privacy Notice" on their network as a means of protecting their information from misuse. According to the message, because Facebook is now a publicly traded entity, anyone can "infringe on your privacy" by using any material that you post on the network as they see fit.

The message claims that you can stop such privacy infringements by posting a copy of a Privacy Notice included in the message. The supposed "Privacy Notice" masquerades as a legal document that prohibits use of information or images posted on your Facebook profile.

However, the claims in the message are utter nonsense. The so called "Privacy Notice" has no legal standing whatsoever. Posting it on your network will do absolutely nothing to protect the information you post on Facebook.

Fellow Hoax-Slayer Steve Williamson has put together the following step-by-step analysis of this ridiculous message:

For those of you who do not understand the reasoning behind this posting, Facebook is now a publicly traded entity

The original poster of this is clearly not understanding very much at all. " Publicly traded entity" means that one can buy stocks / shares in the company - not the data.

Unless you state otherwise, anyone can infringe on your right to privacy once you post to this site.

No they cannot. They can only use what one has failed to "protect" using FB's own privacy controls - i.e. anything you have set to "Public". Stating otherwise on a status update or in your "About" section is meaningless as you agreed to Facebook's terms when you signed up.

It is recommended that you and other members post a similar notice as this, or you may copy and paste this version.

All this will do is spread a falsehood.

If you do not post such a statement once, then you are indirectly allowing public use of items such as your photos and the information contained in your status updates.

Only for those posted items where you failed to set the privacy settings correctly. Anything that is set to "Public" is exactly that - you have offered it to the world, that's why it says "Public".

PRIVACY NOTICE: Warning - any person and/or institution and/or Agent and/or Agency of any governmental structure including but not limited to the United States Federal Government also using or monitoring/using this website or any of its associated websites, you do NOT have my permission to utilize any of my profile information nor any of the content contained herein including, but not limited to my photos, and/or the comments made about my photos or any other "picture" art posted on my profile.

You are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from disclosing, copying, distributing, disseminating, or taking any other action against me with regard to this profile and the contents herein. The foregoing prohibitions also apply to your employee, agent , student or any personnel under your direction or control.

This is completely meaningless "legalese" drivel that holds absolutely NO legal standing whatsoever.

The contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law.

No - they are not private in the slightest and they are certainly NOT "legally privileged". If it contains "confidential information" then why is it posted on Facebook? Which law? Oh this one I suppose:

UCC 1-103 1-308 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICES

Shame that law has no relevance to Internet privacy isn't it? Those particular paragraphs pertain to Commercial law - that's why it's called "Uniform Commercial Code" and are meaningless in the context of this inane piece of crud that is virally being posted all over Facebook.

Facebook itself has responded to the message via the following post on its Facebook and Privacy page:

We have noticed a recent status update that is being widely shared implying the ownership of your Facebook content has recently changed. This is not true and has never been the case.

Facebook does not own your data and content.

Please see our Terms of Service for more information
https://www.facebook.com/policies

Thus, reposting this message will achieve nothing other than clutter Facebook with even more utterly useless garbage. It will do nothing at all to protect your privacy on Facebook. The Privacy Notice has no legal standing of any kind in any jurisdiction.

In late 2012, a new version of the message began circulating that used somewhat different wording, but was nevertheless just as pointless and inane as the first version.

References
Facebook and Privacy page
Facebook Terms and Policies

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