Starting a few days ago, you may have seen some of your friends post the "privacy" message.  Naturally, you might have though, "Crap I gotta do that too!"  Well the truth is that nothing you ever put on your Facebook wall will ever exempt you from any of Facebook's rules.  Here's what the chain letter looks like:

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 a...llowing 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

It pretty much says that now Facebook is a public company, they own the rights to any photos or data you submit to Facebook.  This isn't true.  Facebook has responded to questions about this chain letter posting business.

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.

It's also important to re eiterate what I mentioned earlier.  Whatever you agreed to in the user content license agreement is what matters.  For most people, anything that you do post to facebook is considered public data, and free for anyone to use.  You can change those settings with privacy if you dig around enough.

Basically if you're not happy with Facebook and the privacy issues, don't use it.  It's the only way to be 100% private.  Otherwise, shrug your shoulders and get back to playing farm-ville or whatever the hell is popular now.

 

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