To quote Ron Burgundy: Wow, that escalated quickly.
If you’ve been on Facebook over the past few days, you’ll probably already know what we’re talking about. Yes, it’s the dreaded Facebook are going to start stealing all of your data shared post that seems to rear its ugly head every couple of years or so.
No doubt a number of your more gullible friends have already shared this with you, but just in case you haven’t logged on in a while, here is what you can expect to read:
‘As of September 28 2015 8:50 pm Eastern standard time, I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, or posts, both past and future. By this statement, I give notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute).’
Now scroll down to the comments. 90% of them will be along the lines of “This is a hoax”, and those people are correct.
Facebook is not going to be charging a monthly fee to keep your data private, and the world of Facebook can continue to live on in perfect harmony for at least a while longer, at least until the Dislike button comes along and causes the apocalypse.
Just to make sure that you don’t fall for the hoax, head to Facebook’s terms of service and you can read the following statements:
- Your privacy is very important to us. We designed our Data Policy to make important disclosures about how you can use Facebook to share with others and how we collect and can use your content and information. We encourage you to read the Data Policy, and to use it to help you make informed decisions.
- You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings.
Nothing to worry about.
Facebook saw the funny side of the whole conspiracy theory and poured water on it with this topically-relevant post that included a reference to the discovery of water of Mars:
While there may be water on Mars, don’t believe everything you read on the internet today. Facebook is free and it always will be. And the thing about copying and pasting a legal notice is just a hoax. Stay safe out there Earthlings!
Over 800,000 people ‘Liked’ the status, so hopefully, that will spread across the social network so that you won’t have to keep informing your friends that Facebook isn’t out to steal of your selfies, pictures of funny cats or any other pieces of information you wish to share with family or friends.
As Mashable.com rightly reported, the same hoax appeared on the scene in 2012, so remember that the next time your friends take to sharing a similar post, and you feel like Denzel Washington in Déjà vu (without all the explosions and walking away from explosions, etc.), its probably just worth nothing more than the delete button.
