I’m not on Facebook, so I miss out on a lot of the inanity that goes on over there. But someone posted this into a thread about how people on FB put up variations of this on their profile, with the idea that somehow doing so magically shields them from the “evil eye.”

For those of you that do not understand this posting, Facebook is now a publicly traded entity. Anyone can infringe on your right to privacy once you post on this site. It is recommended that you and other members post a similar notice to this or you may copy and paste this one. Protect yourself, this is now a publicly traded site.

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 photos 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, agent, student or any personnel under your direction or control.

As someone else pointed out, this is sort of like the ‘sovereign citizen’ or free man of the land variation of this in Canada, but applied to a digital context. Here is a Snopes article and an older CBS News piece on related types of notices people put up onto FB, hoping against hope they have some kind of real meaningful legal effect. Perhaps this is kind of a folk hyperreality applied to law – it’s a fan-fiction of what wish law were: easy to understand, straightforward, anyone can do it from the comfort of their own home.

Even if the above quoted notice is somewhat comical in a certain light, I certainly feel for people posting things like this. With the legal system at the level of complexity it is, and the lack of real control most users have when it comes to corporate-owned locked-down platforms, it’s only logical for people to try to assert some kind of control over their experience, and their personal data. The problem, really, is that it is not effective control. It’s illusory, and then they continue feeding the very beast they are aiming not to.

The only way, it seems like, is to opt out. To not use in the first place. To delete, discard, destroy, disconnect your accounts on these services. But the problem is, you still cannot really get out of it. There’s still a shadow profile of you out there in the ether…

In the future (present) we’re converging on, there is no “opt out.” If you even have the “right to object” in the first place, it usually amounts to exactly nothing because there is no contact form, no help email address, no one reviewing your appeal, whatever. It’s just you in a room arguing with a chatbot, forever and ever and ever.

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