Facebook privacy notice a hoax, ‘essentially legal jibberish’

“In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details…”

This post, asserting the Facebook user’s privacy, has made the rounds on Facebook in the past week, appearing on many Stanford students’ timelines.

Unsurprisingly, the post is a hoax.

“If you could just post something and change a relationship, you could just go to Banana Republic and say ‘Oh, is your return policy 30 days? Well my return policy is 60 days, so I’ll see you then,'” said Ryan Calo, a privacy law expert at Stanford University’s Center for Internet and Society,  to KQED Public Media  in an article that called the post “essentially legal jibberish.”

The relationship between Facebook and its users is governed by the agreement in the Facebook Terms of Service.

 

 

About Marwa Farag

Marwa Farag is a senior staff writer at The Stanford Daily. Previously, she was the managing editor of news, managing editor of the former features section, a features desk editor and a news writer.
  • http://www.facebook.com/Danzig.Jon Jon Danzig

    Yes, that Facebook ‘privacy notice’ was a hoax – but this one isn’t. Was one set up to hide the other? Facebook has just announced new privacy laws and closure of democratic rights for members. Almost 20,000 Facebook users have already lodged complaints – enough under the existing rules to trigger a vote of all members. But to kick-out the proposed new rules will require more than 300 million Facebook members to vote. That’s about three times more people than voted in the USA General Election. It seems unlikely to happen – but still worth trying. I’ve written a blog about this on Blogspot called, ‘Stop Facebook’s new face’.

    http://jondanzig.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/stop-facebooks-new-face.html
    Short URL: goo.gl/fUIkA