IF YOU’VE been on Facebook recently, you might well have seen a status update that warns users that their entire Facebook history will become public unless they copy and paste the message onto their own page.
According to the message, “Channel 13 News” has reported on the change to Facebook’s privacy policy, which will become effective from “tomorrow”.
The message goes on to declare that by posting it, the user is forbidding Facebook from making their profile public, and if Facebook ignores it, the message continues, it will be violating laws including the Rome Statute and the UCC 1-308.
It’s a hoax
If you’re worried about your privacy on Facebook, and thinking of sharing this message, don’t. It’s one of a number of viral Facebook hoaxes, presumably created entirely for the enjoyment of the hoaxer.
While not the first time the post has been widely shared, it appears to be snowballing once again – as a cursory Facebook search shows.
Stringing together nonsensical bits of pseudo-legalese cannot save you from succumbing to the rules and regulations of Facebook.
Once you’ve agreed to their terms and conditions — which you already did, by signing up to use the site — you’ve granted the company a “non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook.”
So it’s way too late to copy and paste anything to change what you already agreed to.
Besides, citing the Rome Statute (global laws from the International Criminal Court covering war crimes and genocide) and the UCC (the US Uniform Commercial Code), probably isn’t going to do much good.
Luckily, Facebook has somewhat more sophisticated security controls, checks and balances than requiring users to copy and paste important-sounding messages.
Facebook has a data policy that governs how information is shared, and states that users select what information is public and private. Users can turn their posts, photos and so on from private to public.
As Natasha R, from the Facebook Help Team says, “Our terms say clearly: You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it’s shared through your privacy and application settings. That’s how it works, and this hasn’t changed.
“You can visit Privacy Basics to find out more about who sees what you share on Facebook and other topics.
“You can also read the Data Policy to find out what information we collect and how it is used and shared. We want you to be informed and in control of your experience on Facebook.
I was scammed by a man claiming to be from ECAB. He used the name of Hogan Grant Sr. and took me to his facebook page. they even went so far as to use a name of a man I know many years ago. he was supposedly living in Fayetteville, AR. Said he saw my name on this list, and he got 150,000.00 from ECAB. I was foolish enough to fall for the idea of getting an award, thought it was a sweepstakes because they said I was a winner. I sent them 1,000.00 dollars and now I realized they were scamming me. They got very persistent when I refused to send them any more money, began texting my cell phone, got over 300 text from them and eventually they started calling me and they had a middle eastern accent. the pic they showed on Hogan Grant facebook page was an middle age caucation man.