Beware of the regurgitated Facebook hoax that claims your privacy is in jeopardy

If you’ve signed into Facebook anytime within the past few days, it’s likely you’ve seen your friends post messages about the legality of the content they post.

Similar to the hoax in 2012, this is yet another piece of misinformation. Snopes, the site that clears up internet rumors, wrote that a message posted to your status is not legally binding, so even if Facebook did try to steal your photos or information, the post would be little help.

To clear up any confusion, protecting your copyright or privacy rights isn’t a problem that Facebook users face. Facebook does not own the rights to photos you post, you do.

"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 to ABC News earlier this year. "Under our terms you grant Facebook permission to use, distribute, and share the things you post, subject to the terms and applicable privacy settings.”

Under Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities clause, it’s stated, “You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings.”

It’s unclear why this hoax keeps resurfacing, but rest assured, we have nothing to worry about when it comes to Facebook privacy as long as we set out profiles from public to private.

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