Hoax! Don't copy and paste that 'Copyright' Facebook message

Dawn Dugle | The Clarion-Ledger

You may have noticed a "Privacy Alert Notice" in your Facebook feed. It claims that if you copy and paste a certain notice into your Facebook feed, it will protect your privacy.

More specifically:

"In response to the new Facebook guidelines, I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention). For commercial use of the above my written consent is needed at all times!"

Why is this type of hoax back? Not sure. But know this: Facebook does not own your media.

"We have noticed some statements that suggest otherwise and we wanted to take a moment to remind you of the facts -- when you post things like photos to Facebook, we do not own them," Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement, according to ABC News. "Under our terms (https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms), you grant Facebook permission to use, distribute, and share the things you post, subject to the terms and applicable privacy settings."

In 2012, USA TODAY wrote about a fake 'privacy notice' on Facebook.

if you see something like this, go to Snopes and look it up before you post it. Snopes is in the business of clearing up myths on the Internet.

According to Snopes: "The 'problem' this ineffective solution supposedly addresses is a non-existent one. Facebook isn't claiming copyright to the personal information, photographs and other material that their users are posting to the social network."



