First of all: If you follow the false report published on Facebook then...
...you would deactivate the updates that you would normally have received from this friend.
So you hide the relevant topics on your home page. Certainly a useful function for some, but completely unsuitable for protecting privacy. Anyone who really recommends their friends to remove these check marks will soon be surprised when they no longer receive any reactions to their activities, since these friends no longer notice anything about them.
What is it all about anyway?
We recently reported on the introduction of Graph Search on Facebook and gave you tips on how you should deal with your privacy settings in this context. But of course it was foreseeable that there would be a lot of confusion and uncertainty with this change or innovation from Facebook. It is therefore not surprising that a well-known hoax with slightly modified text is making the rounds again.
We would like to show you again here what is wrong with this message and what the included “instructions” actually do.
Screenshot of the message:
Text in original:
Hello dear friends of my Facebook contact list, I would like to ask everyone for a favor... Facebook has apparently changed the privacy settings again! Thanks to the new “Graphic App”, anyone on FB (even someone abroad) can see your pictures, know your preferences and read your comments. This post will be displayed for the next few days and as soon as you have done what I ask you to do, please respond with the note “Done!” Because if your friends click “Like” or “Comment”, their friends can automatically see our posts . Unfortunately, you cannot change this setting yourself. So please, drag the mouse on my name (without clicking), a window will appear. Drag the mouse to “Friends” (still without clicking) and then to “Settings”. Click on “Settings”. A list appears. Unchecks “Life Events” and “Comments and Likes”. My activities with friends and family are no longer public. Now COPY this post and PASTE it into your status field. (I said COPY AND PASTE and not “share”). As soon as I see this published I will do the same. Thanks…
Graphic app? What should it be?
So let's take a closer look at this status report. According to this report, Facebook is said to have changed its privacy settings again. As far as we know, this is not the case. Of course, as with any major change to Facebook, it can happen that options that a user had already set suddenly change. However, this usually happens without intention, but regular checks of the settings (or at the latest when major changes occur) keep the damage limited.
The “Graphic App” is said to be to blame for the changes. Of course, informed users know that it should actually be called Graph Search. The name “Graphic App” somehow reminds us of an application for editing graphics and has nothing to do with the new search on Facebook. To add to the drama of this news, we read that “(even someone abroad)” could use Graph Search to find out users’ images, likes, comments, etc. Of course, it is true that people abroad can also use Graph Search. People abroad can officially do this even earlier than German users, because Graph Search is already activated there. You can easily check this by changing your language to English (US).
There is also talk of a post that will be displayed in the next few days. We assume here that the note and announcement is meant by Graph Search. By now, all users should have seen this at least once in their account.
Now, after a rather confusing explanation as to why you should definitely comment with “Done”, there are instructions that we already know from an older hoax. (Links at the end of this article) Following these instructions will disable the updates you would normally have received from this friend. So you hide the relevant topics on your home page. Certainly a useful function for some, but completely unsuitable for protecting privacy. Anyone who really recommends their friends to remove these check marks will soon be surprised when they no longer receive any reactions to their activities, since these friends no longer notice anything about them.
If someone really wants to ensure that their comments, likes, etc. are not seen by others, there is only one option. Pay attention to where you comment and like. These actions “inherit” the privacy setting of the original post. So if someone posts “publicly”, your comment is also public. However, if someone posts for “friends”, only their friends can read your comment.
Last but not least, please note that you should definitely post this message as your own status. Is this perhaps intended to obscure where the original post came from? Is the creator even aware that he is distributing false information?
GraphSearch – A function full of misunderstandings
Finally, we would like to briefly describe what Graph Search is and what it means for your privacy.
The new search enables you to search for connections. For example, searches like “single women from Berlin who are fans of ZDDK” are possible. Of course, with the corresponding terms, this offers a certain potential for misuse. For example, if the future employer is looking for applicant Meier's alcohol, party or political preferences. However, you can easily counteract embarrassing search results. The key is your own privacy setting. GraphSearch users only receive the information that they could have found without using the search function. So everything that is either set to “public” or that he is allowed to see anyway because he is a “friend” or “friend of a friend”. It is therefore up to the user what and for whom information about him can be found in GraphSearch.
Older articles with similar hoax:
https://www.mimikama.org/general/falschmeldeich-habe-einen-bericht-im-wdr-lokalzeit-gehen/
https://www.mimikama.org/general/falschmelde-mitich-wrde-gerne-privat-mit-euch-in-connection-halten/
https://www.mimikama.org/hoax-melden/hoax-fahre-mit-der-maus-ber-meinen-namen/
And for your English speaking friends:
http://thatsnonsense.com/view.php?id=1609
Lintk tip:
https://www.mimikama.org/general/social-graph-graph-search-wurde-auf-facebook-freigeschaltung/
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )