The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has been busy lately, it seems. Just a day after Google was fined by the FTC for a record 22.5 million, USD, for circumventing privacy settings on Apple’s Safari web browser, Facebook and the FTC settled on a case that involved what the FTC said was, “a broad range of deceptive conduct” regarding privacy policies.

Facebook was accused of having “unfair and deceptive” changes to its privacy policy in 2009 and 2010, as well as giving out information to third party companies without legal consent, even after account deactivation. 

The FTC also said that Facebook did not tell users that information such as name, picture, friends list, gender, and pages could no longer be made private from third parties.  ”Facebook’s failure to adequately disclose these facts, in light of the representation made, constitutes a deceptive act or practice,” the FTC said, according to The Guardian.

Because of the settlement with the FTC, Facebook will be tightening its privacy policies and forced to undergo a biannual privacy check by an independent watchdog group for the next twenty years.

A “privacy notice” has made its way across Facebook, stating the following:

PRIVACY NOTICE:

Warning–any person and/or institution and/or Agent and/or Agency of any governmental structure including but not limited to the United States Federal Government 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.

Don’t bother. It’s a hoax. While it certainly won’t hurt you, it won’t help.

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