Infowars claim that Facebook are spying for the Government from January 2015…

We’ve been fielding plenty of questions this week regarding the new terms of service that Facebook are planning for 2015, with many being told that Facebook are “dropping a bombshell”.

Whenever Facebook announce changes to their legal literature it prompts many people to examine exactly just what they agreed to when they sign up for a Facebook account (which of course we encourage!)

Despite this latest update to the small print being a relatively minor overhaul in comparison to some past changes (this change is mostly rewording to make the terms more readable), many of us have been examining those terms over the last few weeks, and it has once again sparked the usual concoction of confusion, alarm and panic.

And typically, much of this alarm has been over clauses in the terms of service that have actually been there for some time now – i.e. nothing that is to be introduced in 2015.

However many of the questions we’ve been getting is in relation to a video article by our favourite website InfoWars.com [/sarcasm] that claims Facebook will NOW be sharing all of your information with the CIA, NSA and pretty much any other group with an acronym. Not only that, but as from 2015, using Facebook will give said organisations access to all the information on whatever device you choose to access Facebook from, as per the revised terms and conditions. Other websites have dressed this article up as Facebook “dropping a bombshell” in 2015.

Utter, unadulterated nonsense.

Whilst many people will convince themselves that Facebook and other entities are nefariously and illegally spying on everything that they do (not much we can do to dissuade these people otherwise), the InfoWars “reporter” Joe Biggs cluelessly comes to his conclusions by misinterpreting several relatively innocent and benign clauses in the Facebook terms of service that aren’t even new to 2015!

Biggs firstly examines the updated policy section that discusses “Device information” (see screenshot below) and what Facebook collects from your device when you access their site or app. Now – to be clear – this is a new section in the new updated 2015 policy but this isn’t new to 2015. It’s just existing small print that has been reworded.

So, yes, Facebook have collected information about your device (e.g. your laptop or phone) for some time now. But this isn’t as nefarious as Biggs makes it out to be. In fact almost every website in the world does (or has the capability of) collecting the same data. They need/use this information for a variety of reasons, such as ensuring the website is displayed correctly on your device (a smartphone displays Facebook differently to a tablet, or PC) and is also used to create analysis reports regarding traffic type and source. Any web developer worth his salt (including us) will have a Google Analytics account that will also have this same information about visitors.

The information collected isn’t particularly personal. Not many people would be too worried if a website collects information such as the resolution or size of their screen, what operating system they use or model of phone they have. It’s not personal information, rather generic information about a device.

However Biggs from InfoWars suggests that using Facebook on your computer/phone/tablet puts ALL your information stored on that device at risk of being shared. So for example your contacts, SMS messages, photos and any other detail you enter into your phone would be at risk simply because you stored it on a device on which you accessed Facebook. This is baseless nonsense. Once again – this isn’t true at all. Facebooks terms of service does NOT say this! It’s baseless, but of course Biggs suggests it regardless.

The report also suggests that your information is being shared with the NSA, FBI, CIA and other entities because the new Terms of Service states that some of your information is shared with third parties.

However once again Biggs mistakenly refers to an existing piece of small print as a new clause to be enforced from 2015. Facebook have shared certain information about their users to third parties for some time now, and these third parties are advertisers, looking to show users targeted advertisements. This is nothing new, and the assertion that “third parties” will from 2015 include agencies like the CIA or NSA is based on nothing whatsoever.

We encourage all our users to read the Facebook terms of service and understand what Facebook can and cannot do with your data. Depending on your previous knowledge or expectations you may be shocked or wholly indifferent to how Facebook operates and how it treats your information.

But don’t get carried away with conspiracy-laden sites like InfoWars and their incorrect speculation. The 2015 Facebook terms of service update isn’t ground-breaking stuff, and much of what is deemed to be controversial has been there for some time now. Seriously, you can go there and see it for yourself.