Don't fall for fake privacy notice, Facebook users advised

Attention, Facebook users: if you see a so-called privacy notice being posted by your friends on the social network, don't believe it - it's fake.

 

Security vendor Sophos said the supposed privacy notice, which claims to protect one's personal data from unauthorized copying, has gone viral.

 

"The idea behind the 'notice' is that Facebook’s listing as a publicly traded company will negatively affect its users’ privacy, which is not true.  Simply put, Facebook and its users are still bound to the same terms and conditions that are accepted by users when they sign up for the service, and posting a legal 'talisman' of this kind on your profile does nothing to change that," it said in a blog post.

 

It noted the notice started spreading a few days after Facebook posted its new privacy guidelines.

 

The guidelines would let users comment on proposed changes to its governing documents, but not vote.

 

Sophos noted the viral notice claims that the member's written consent will be needed for commercial use of his or her materials.

 

It added anyone can copy the text of the notice and paste it on their Facebook wall, which supposedly forbids Facebook to “disclose, copy, distribute, disseminate, or take any other action against [the user] on the basis of this profile and/or its contents.”

 

But Sophos pointed out the notice is similar to a "notice" which also spread virally on Facebook last July. — ELR, GMA News