People, relax, Facebook will not charge you to protect your privacy

For those who have been frantically posting status updates on Facebook, standing up against the company’s alleged move to charge its users to keep their posts private, consider this: IT IS A HOAX!

If you just wind back to 2013, a similar hoax message went viral in September. We're still waiting for Facebook to start charging £5.99, and if you are one of those who have bought the hoax this time around, your wait is going to be even longer. To be clear, Facebook is a social media platform, which may force you to use its ancillary apps, but is definitely not in the business of alienating its users.

"Now it's official! It has been published in the media. Facebook has just released the entry price: £5.99 to keep the subscription of your status to be set to "private". If you paste this message on your page, it will be offered free (I said paste not share) if not tomorrow, all your posts can become public. Even the messages that have been deleted or the photos not allowed. After all, it does not cost anything for a simple copy and paste." That's the message doing the rounds on Facebook.

The hoax message also managed to insert a timeline, for credibility sake we suppose, saying that Facebook will start charging this summer. To make things even more hilarious, one of the messages exploited the credibility of media to nail the point, saying “Channel 13 News talked about the change in Facebook's privacy policy.”

The idea that simply copying and pasting a message would protect you from such a change is frankly ridiculous, never mind the fact Facebook would be in seriously hot water if it decided to open up its users' private data for all to see.

On the contrary, if you wish to keep your Facebook posts private, do not share this hoax message which does nothing other than keeping the rumor alive and allow people to falsely believe they are protected.

Here’s what you need to do instead, to protect your privacy:

- Go to down triangle icon at the top right corner of Facebook and choose Settings. If you're using Facebook on a phone or tablet, tap the three horizontal lines icon and choose Account Settings

- Go to the Privacy Settings tab

- Under 'Who can see your future posts' select Friends, or whatever your preference is. You can customize also

- You can also change privacy settings retrospectively for older posts by selecting 'Limit the audience for posts you've shared with friends of friends or Public' and choose 'Limit old posts'.

If you are still in doubt, you can just preview your profile and see how it appears to people who are not on your friend’s list. If you are using Facebook on the desktop, simply open your profile page and click on the three dots below your Cover photo, and slick ‘View as’. This will show you your profile through the eyes of the public. Alternately, use the selector at the top of the page to view as a certain person.