The following is a most helpful article by Rick Rouse.   We often hear "My Facebook Account has been hacked"  when in fact it has not.  It's been cloned and there are measures you can take.

Another PSA.   We also hear "Facebook has put me in Facebook Jail".   Of this comment stems from the person receiving a message from Meta (Facebook's parent company) that their Facebook account is being suspended due to some infringement of their policies.  I get about three of these a week.   Meta is not sending these messages and replying to them and giving them any information is falling for a phishing scheme.  

By Rick Rouse
Rick's Daily Tech Tipe

Yet another Facebook-related scam is making the rounds, but this one isn’t being perpetrated on the Facebook website.

It’s actually taking place on Messenger app instead.

As Facebook scams go, this one is pretty simple but it’s also unusually widespread.
In a nutshell, the scam goes something like this… 

Several of your friends start receiving strange messages that appear to have been sent by you via Facebook Messenger. These messages can vary quite a bit but they are almost always messages that are out of character for you.

Some messages will try to trick your friends into signing up for some “deal”. Others will try to get them to click a link or watch a video.

Regardless of the actual messages they receive, they are almost always the types of messages you wouldn’t normally send. That should be a huge red flag for your friends, and luckily it usually will be.

Most people who receive these messages recognize right away that they’re out of character for the sender and message them to let them know what’s going on.

That’s why in most cases the messages themselves aren’t really the problem. The real problem is the “sender” usually thinks their Facebook account has been hacked when it actually hasn’t.
Understandably, they change their password thinking that will fix the problem, but it doesn’t.

Messages continue being sent out in their name even after they change their password, which of course has them pulling their hair out trying to figure out why someone is still sending messages to their friends from their account.

Well, if your friends start receiving messages that appear to have been sent by you, don’t panic. Your account probably has not been hacked.

What’s happening is someone has created a fake account using your name and photo and they’re using that account to make it look like the messages they’re sending came from you.
Unfortunately, Facebook makes it easy for scammers to impersonate you on Messenger, and that can cause a ton of confusion when a scammer decides to target YOUR friends for mischief.
The good news is your Facebook account has NOT been hacked.

The bad news is your friends are receiving messages from a scammer that make them believe your account has been hacked, and when they message you to tell you about it YOU also believe your account has been hacked (even though it hasn’t).

Luckily, this is one of the easiest scams to detect. Here’s how…

When one of your friends messages you and says “you’ve been hacked because I’m receiving strange messages from you“, send them a message back and ask them if there are two accounts in your name showing up in their messages list.

If they see your name on the list twice that means they’re receiving messages in your name from two different accounts – your real account and the fake account that was created by the scammer.

Unfortunately, there isn’t really anything you can do to prevent this type of scam, or even put a stop to it because it’s very easy to impersonate another user on Messenger.

What you can do is warn your Messenger contacts about the fake “you” so they can be on the lookout for those strange messages and block the fake account one they discover it.

And now, one final recommendation: Even though your actual Facebook account hasn’t been hacked, I still recommend that you enable Two-Factor Authentication on it to prevent it from getting hacked in the future.

By BD Bondy

​Right upfront I will say that I don’t create content, generally. I don’t want to be an influencer, I don’t want to be a content creator, basically, I want to be left alone and go rock collecting and hang out with my shmoofy.
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However, I have created a few videos which I edited on my iMac. They were not very good, but they are funny. They involve dinosaur rides at Ghost Ranch. You can see my favorite one 

For those of you with an interest or talent in video editing and making your own videos to post on YouTube, and you don’t have an Apple Computer, you might consider a product called Clipchamp. You should read about it HERE. 

It says it’s free, and the article claims it is a Microsoft product. I installed it onto my desktop and it looks like a video editing program, so that’s good. I’d recommend Adobe’s Creative Cloud if you get into this stuff.  It isn’t free but it is complete.
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There are other video editing programs out there, some are also free, I have only used iMovie. The process is generally similar, you upload your clips and pull them into the program. Once loaded, you can edit, cut, merge videos. You can also do the same with sound, and synchronize it to the video you are creating. 

By BD Bondy
 
Windows is Messy.
So was Oscar. Felix was the neat one. That’s a fair analogy to Microsoft and Apple, Oscar and Felix. They each had their endearing qualities.

Microsoft has just released an app for Windows 10 & 11 that cleans itself up. This can potentially speed up your computer and free up some disk space.

I’ve been using CCleaner for this purpose, and manually doing cleanups, adjustments. It’s great that after a gazillion years Microsoft has finally decided to clean up its room. I tried out PC Manager, the new app, and it was good. It basically is doing what 3rd party programs, like CCleaner, have been doing for millennia, plus adding some other features, like a screen for your startup programs. There was also an option for cleaning up your disk, finding duplicate files, allowing you to do something about them.

I am guessing that the app will eventually be included in a Windows update, but I had to download the app. I searched for PC Manager in my search bar and clicked on the suggestion which brought me to a webpage where I selected ‘Download’. It downloaded and I installed it.
You can read more about it HERE. 

I would suggest reading about it and see if you want to install it. You can download it HERE. 

As an aside, it doesn’t do everything. While I was running it I got a pop-up for Macrium Reflect saying there is an update for it. For me, this is normal, as I do have Macrium Reflect on my computer. What I didn’t understand was why it asked me that after just starting up my computer. I went into my Startup tab and sure enough, it was NOT there. So I went into my running Processes, and it was running there, so I ended them (there were several). They started up again, so I then went to look at my services and found Macrium there, set as Automatic. I edited it to be Manual and stopped the processes.
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Long winded but I want to point out is that the new app won’t do everything. If you aren’t doing anything, then this will be a very useful app. If you use CCleaner, then this may be a better choice. In any case, there’s always plenty more to look at if you are so inclined. I am a bit more Felixy, so I do this stuff, but Oscar was great too. 

By Rick Rouse
Rick's Daily Tips

Question from Darla: Hi, Rick. I hope you can answer a Facebook question for me.

I'm an amateur photographer but I'm hoping to go pro before too long.
I regularly upload some of my best photos to my Facebook profile to get feedback from my friends and other photographers.

I was chatting with one of my photographer friends the other day and she said once I upload a photo to Facebook they automatically become the copyright holder of that photo and they can do anything they want to with it.

First of all, is that true? And if it is, will deleting my Facebook account also delete the photos and return the copyright for them back to me?

This really has me upset so I hope you can give me an answer ASAP. Thanks so much in advance!

Rick's answer: Darla, it appears that your friend has given you a mixture of correct and incorrect information.

I'll discuss the incorrect info first...

When you take a picture you automatically become the copyright holder of that photo the instant it is taken.

According to this page on the US Copyright Office's website you will own the copyright to that photo until the day you pass away. What're more, your heirs will own the copyright to it for 70 years after your death.

Of course you can sell (or otherwise transfer) the copyright for any photo to a third party at any time, but simply uploading a photo to your Facebook profile doesn't affect that photo's copyright in any way.

In other words, YOU still own the copyright to every photo that you upload to Facebook IF you owned the copyright before it was uploaded.

How do we know this? Because Facebook states it on this page of their Terms of Service (TOS). Here is the relevant passage:

"You retain ownership of the intellectual property rights (things like copyright or trademarks) in any such content that you create and share on Facebook and other Meta Company Products you use. Nothing in these Terms takes away the rights you have to your own content. You are free to share your content with anyone else, wherever you want."

That, in a nutshell, explains the "incorrect" part of the info your photographer friend shared with you. Now, let's discuss the part she got right...

When you upload a photo to Facebook's website that does give Facebook the right to USE that photo in pretty much any way they see fit as long as they don't share it with people who aren't allowed to see it (based upon your privacy settings).

For example, if your privacy settings allow the Public (i.e. anyone on Facebook) to view your photos then Facebook is allowed to share them with everyone on Facebook via advertisements and other common uses as they see fit.

What's more, your "Public" photos can be also be shared with third parties outside of Facebook if those entities support Facebook in some way.

However, if your privacy settings only allow your Facebook friends to see your photos, Facebook won't share them with anyone else on Facebook. They also won't share "Friends Only" photos with third parties because doing so would circumvent your privacy settings.

Disclaimer: Keep in mind that I am NOT an attorney so the info I provide in this post should not be considered legal advice. That being said, what I've stated above is my understanding of the situation based upon my reading of Facebook's TOS.

I strongly recommend that you read the TOS yourself and/or consult with an attorney if you want to be sure your rights to your own photos are fully protected.

You'll find the relevant info you need to understand in section 3.3 of Facebook's Terms of Service (TOS).

As you can see from that passage, Facebook is pretty clear about what they can and will do with the photos you upload to their site.

And now, one final note concerning your question about what would happen if you were to delete your Facebook account...

Also per the Facebook TOS, if you delete your Facebook account your uploaded photos will be removed and they will no longer be used in any way by Facebook.

Bottom line: Facebook does not assume the copyright to your photos when you upload them to their site, but they can (and do) use your photos pretty much any way they see fit as long as that use doesn't circumvent the choices you made in your privacy settings.
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Bonus tip: All of the above being said, when it comes right down to it, true privacy really doesn't exist on Facebook. This post explains why.