Facebook privacy notice hoax
Yet another
privacy scare is doing the rounds on Facebook. Our social media law expert investigates.
Despite Facebook’s best efforts, the general public would rather believe their friends and re-post the annoying message “just in case” rather than read the privacy policy that they signed up for.
There have been certain privacy concerns regarding the sharing of information between Whatsapp and Facebook (Facebook bought Whatsapp a few years ago); however, it is very different from the type of scare that has been recently reported on Facebook.
Images: Good Things Guy
In Europe Facebook has been ordered to delete the data that it has received from non-Facebook Whatsapp users from their database. Facebook had been using “cookies” to track Whatsapp users who were not signed up for Facebook without their knowledge, however, this information had been secured on their servers and certainly was not public information that could be viewed by everyone.
What is clear in all of these scaremongering situations is that the best source of information is usually the company concerned and not your Facebook feed. Should you have privacy concerns you would be well served to read the privacy policies on the Facebook site or contact their help centre.
Verlie Oosthuizen
Shepstone & Wylie Social Media Law Department