New Facebook Meme?

[Eutychus]

I’m seeing this all over the place on Facebook now …

Since Facebook is now publicly traded and there is no knowing what will occur in the future, I am posting this: This applies to all of my posts: Warning–any person and/or institution and/or Agent and/or Agency of any governmental, public or private structure including but not limited to the United States, Australian or Canadian Federal Government (or any government entity), also using or monitoring/using this website… or any of its associated websites, you do NOT have my permission to utilize any of my profile information nor any of the content contained herein including…,…but not limited to… my photos, and/ or the comments made about my photo’s or any other “picture” art posted on my profile. You are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from disclosing, copying, distributing, disseminating, or taking any other action against me with regard to this profile and the contents herein. The foregoing prohibitions also apply to your employee(s), agent(s), student(s) or any personnel under your direction or control. The contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law.

What’s the deal? Is this legally binding?

[Rick]

The TLDR version is:
If I confess to a crime here publicly, you can’t prosecute me cause I say so.
Riiiiiiiiiight
Good luck with that one in court.

[Ethilrist]

I’ve seen this before, also including: “UCC 1-103 1-308 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE”

I have no idea whether or not it is even remotely binding, but really… whatever happened to “don’t put anything out on the internet you wouldn’t want to see on a billboard on your drive home from work?”

[guizot]

@Rick

The TLDR version is:
If I confess to a crime here publicly, you can’t prosecute me cause I say so.
Riiiiiiiiiight
Good luck with that one in court.

Well, it’s also saying, for example, to one’s boss that they can’t fire you for saying the company sucks.

Riiiiiiight. No one can be put under any kind of legal restriction (other than those that already are part of public code) simply by reading a Facebook page. Why would you ever think that?

It might as well say this:

@Stupid New Facebook Meme

The contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law… And by the way, you owe me $100.

[blindboyard]

As Facebook’s entire business is based on selling information I assume they have legions of lawyers making sure their ToS includes several clauses giving them the right to do whatever they want. But I’m not one of their customers, so I can’t be sure.

[BigT]

The first thing I notice off the top of my head is that there is no way to opt out of the provision. That’s what made a ton of EULA’s illegal. All enforceable EULAs include a line about how, if you don’t want to be bound by the terms, you have to cancel the install and not use the disk.

IANAL, but I did pay attention to that EULA thing.

[Dewey_Finn]

What is the point of saying “the contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law” when you’re posting the information freely for anyone to read?

[Absolute]

Jesus. If someone is that worried about Facebook, maybe they should just stop using it.

[Dewey_Finn]

FYI, here is the Snopes article on this thing. (In short, Snopes says that it isn’t legally binding.)

[Kent_Clark]

@Ethilrist

I’ve seen this before, also including: “UCC 1-103 1-308 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE”

IANAL but when I read that UCC section in the context of a Facebook posting, it just confuses me even more.

And “any of the content contained herein”? Sounds like I can’t even like the post, since then I would be sending it to my friends, since that would be “utilizing” any of the content contained herein.

[J-P_L]

@Absolute

Jesus. If someone is that worried about Facebook, maybe they should just stop using it.

I agree!

[BwanaBob]

@Dewey_Finn

What is the point of saying “the contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law” when you’re posting the information freely for anyone to read?

I think they’re claiming that you can read it but are forbidden from doing anything to them because of the contents. Like someone else said, you can’t fire me because I posted something you didnt like. Sounds unenforceable.

[barbitu8]

[Hoax Alert ] Privacy Notice and Warning to Institutions, Agents & Agencies

[Joey_P]

It seems to me that putting that in your profile is about as useful as walking into a Target and whispering “Hey, security people, you can’t record me in here”.

Besides does this “including…,…but not limited to… my photos, and/ or the” look like it was written by someone who went to law school or someone trying to start a meme.

Cut and paste if you love your freedom.

[dracoi]

@blindboyard

As Facebook’s entire business is based on selling information I assume they have legions of lawyers making sure their ToS includes several clauses giving them the right to do whatever they want. But I’m not one of their customers, so I can’t be sure.

This is the key thing. Since a user of Facebook must agree to the terms of service, privacy policies and other legal agreement in order to continue using the service, their posting of that message would only be effective if Facebook were to agree to be bound by it.

It makes about as much sense as signing a lease with your landlord, then posting a notice on your apartment door saying “I hereby amend my lease so that I don’t have to pay rent and cannot be evicted.” When it comes time to evict you, the landlord just has to produce the previous contract.