Lakhs of Facebook users across the country woke up to a privacy notice referring to the Berner Convention on Monday morning.
The notice said that Facebook would affect privacy of users as it has been listed as a publicly traded company.
It pointed out based on the new Facebook guidelines, one has to declare that all their personal details, photos, videos and other data is under copyright and their commercial use requires written consent of the user.
The fear that started with a few wall posts later caught more fire as people frantically started changing their privacy settings, with many even temporarily deleting their accounts.
“I do not know if this is true, but there is a buzz about this on the website. All my friends have pasted the messages on their timelines and walls and so I saw no harm in doing so,” said Suchith Shastry, an entrepreneur.
The issue also became a hot topic of discussion at colleges and IT parks, where a majority of people put out reports issued globally, declaring this a hoax. “It is clearly a hoax and every year such messages are circulated once. However, since the topic of online privacy has been debated a lot in India in the last few months, this was the right time for a hoax like this to create waves,” said Kirti Sharma, a technical and security expert working for a private firm.
Facebook has not issued any official statement on the matter. The company has mentioned that it would be making their privacy setting easier to navigate.