If you have been on Facebook over the past couple of days, you couldn't have escaped seeing a certain post doing the rounds about the social network making all your posts -- past, present and future -- public. Well, in case you didn't guess already, there is good news. The post is fake and Facebook is taking no such action to invade your privacy. At least in this matter.
Several versions of the message have been circulating on Facebook. One of which says that 'Channel 13 News' was just talking about this change in Facebook's privacy policy. Well, we tried to look up Channel 13, and this is what we found.
This is how the first part of the message goes: "I don't give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, posts from 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."
Now, Facebook does have access to your information anyway, as you have signed up on the website by agreeing to their terms and conditions. But you can always manage your privacy by going to the Privacy menu in your account settings. Facebook is not really going to change your setting by posting a status message.
The next part of the message reads: "The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute."
Rome Statue, really? And the correct law number for reservation of rights is, UCC 1 308.
In the last paragraph, the message states that Facebook is now a public entity. No it is not! Facebook is big, in terms of its reach, influence, market cap and what not, but it is not the government.
Messages such as these are not new and they are usually spread for pure mischief -- to create needless panic or sometimes, in phishing emails, to create hacking opportunities. So please do not share these messages. If Facebook is really going to initiate a big user policy change they will surely inform the users officially, well ahead of time.