In the last couple of days there’s been a Facebook post circulating telling people to re-post the message to protect their privacy. Before we go any further, it’s a hoax.
I’m no longer surprised at how quickly such hoaxes spread. It seems that there are a lot of people out there without critical thinking skills, who’ve never heard of Snopes or Google, and have no inclination to do a little independent research.
What interested me about this particular hoax is how quickly the Facebook community responded with counter hoax picture memes. I saw the memes before I saw a copy of the hoax.
So what viral marketing opportunity did I miss?
I should have taken a few minutes to produce an original picture meme of my own, made sure it included the Davis-Allman logo, web address/Facebook page address and cast it out into the ocean of Facebook. What I actually did was re-post one of the memes I’d been sent with a little explanatory text. Excellent news for the person who created the original post (good for them). Not so good for me.
Facebook privacy hoax memes
Just for fun, here are a few of the counter memes that I saw. The images link to the Facebook pages where I found them. Remember I have no control over the comments and idiocies you might find there!
Facebook’s Copyright policy
What is Facebook’s stance on copyright? That’s easy to find, click on ‘terms’ at the bottom of any Facebook page and it’ll take you to Facebook’s terms and conditions page – last updated June 8, 2012. Here’s an extract:
- For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
- When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).
- When you use an application, the application may ask for your permission to access your content and information as well as content and information that others have shared with you. We require applications to respect your privacy, and your agreement with that application will control how the application can use, store, and transfer that content and information. (To learn more about Platform, including how you can control what information other people may share with applications, read our Data Use Policy and Platform Page.)
- When you publish content or information using the Public setting, it means that you are allowing everyone, including people off of Facebook, to access and use that information, and to associate it with you (i.e., your name and profile picture).
- We always appreciate your feedback or other suggestions about Facebook, but you understand that we may use them without any obligation to compensate you for them (just as you have no obligation to offer them).”
Basically, if you keep your content private or friends only it should stay that way. Make it public and all bets are off.