I logged in to Facebook today to browse my news feed and see if I could fish anything useful out of the sea of distant relatives, former classmates, and ex-girlfriends all eagerly sharing their political views, baby photos, and what they had for lunch today. I was somewhat taken back by a recurring status update that had been posted by several friends (see image below). In summation, is was a copy/ paste of a declaration that all content contained with the posters profile was private, copyrighted material, not available for commercial use by anyone but the original poster (the user). It seems that every 6 months or so a new chain letter circulates and a good number of people jump on the bandwagon to "protect" their information from the social networking giant. This time around (like time and time before) the notice is once again a fake. Here is an announcement Facebook made to squash the recent rumor.

The thing I find most interesting about this occurrence is that it speaks to the naivety of people's understanding of the online ecosystem. In a world that is increasingly influenced by social media and the internet as a whole, there are numbers of people who either don't know, don't care, or don't want to know just how available their data truly is. It would be great to live in a world where complex services are free for the public to enjoy without payment, but we do not. We live in a world where nearly every action you take in the digital world is tracked, recorded, and analyzed before being sold countless times over to marketers and advertisers. There is an argument to be made that this kind of data capture ultimately benefits the user by delivering more relevant ads and content, I for one embrace this affect but I'm a bit more tech savvy than the average consumer and find comfort in knowing there is some level of anonymity within the data collected on me. The struggle for privacy in a world where the internet and social media have become increasingly intertwined into our everyday lives will continue until users are fully informed about how the internet works or stop caring all together. Be sure to always keep in mind that if you use a service or product that is free of charge, chances are; you are the product.