In the latest of a string of phishing attacks, a ‘privacy notice’ has gone viral on Facebook, supposedly protecting users personal details.
Written by Kaye Neylon
The notice began its journey into the inbox’s of tens of thousands of users only days after Facebook posted its new privacy guidelines. Facebook announced it would let users comment on the proposed changes to its governing documents, but not vote to overturn them. The phishing notice is as follows: “In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, graphics, comics, paintings, 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!” The message then goes on to claim that anyone can copy this text 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.” The notice points out that “Facebook is now an open capital entity.” and that all its members are “recommended to publish a notice like this.” The phishing scam resembles a one similar from July which also spread virally on Facebook. Both of which are untrue and do not further protect a users rights to privacy and content copyright. The “logic” behind the scam is that Facebook’s listing as a publicly traded company would supposedly have an adverse effect its users’ privacy, this is simply not true. Since Facebook became a public traded company, it has had no affect on its users who are still legally bound to the same terms and conditions that are accepted by users when they sign up for a Facebook account, and posting any of the information provided from the phishing notice onto your profile does nothing to change that. Have you ever fallen victim to a phishing attack? Let us know, put your comments in the box below!About Jungle
