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Earlier this week I noticed that one of my friends had made their Facebook profile photos no longer visible. I wasn’t sure if this was because they had put me on a restricted friend list or if they had simply removed their profile photos. I awkwardly asked my friend why I had been blocked from viewing his photos and he said that he blocked everybody so his boss wouldn’t see his less professional photographs. Unfortunately my friend didn’t understand the power of Facebook’s custom privacy settings.
Within a day or two, that same friend had been tagged in another photo which ultimately made it to my news feed. I immediately wondered why I was able to view a photo despite that individual’s effort to block his friends from viewing photos he had been tagged in. The reason it appeared in my news feed was that I share a number of friends in common with that individual and since multiple friends had been tagged in that album, I could see all the photos.
What if my friend had been tagged in a compromising situation though? Personally, I’m not going to judge this individual since I’ve known him since my childhood. Additionally, the photo that showed up in the feed showed him in a professional environment. What if he had been out partying though and I had been his boss? There’s the potential that a boss is connected to all of their subordinates. In turn any photos that multiple subordinates are tagged in would immediately show up in the news feed of the boss.
If those individuals were out partying and my friend was tagged in a compromising photo there is a chance that his boss could see the photo despite all of his privacy efforts. The reason is that all of his friends didn’t set the same privacy settings as my friend. I’ll call this the “Facebook peer group effect”. If you are connected to a group of individuals and your boss, a parent, or some other authoritative figure is also connected to that peer group, there is a good chance that a compromising photo of yourself will eventually make it into the feed.
Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about it. All you can do is end your “friendships” with the specific peer group that tags you in photos and hopefully they will never tag you again. The even better alternative is to not place yourself in compromising positions. This is the new Facebook reality and it’s something that we are forced to consider on a daily basis.
The question that quickly arises is “can you protect people from themselves on Facebook?” While you can strive to portray a certain image on Facebook, there is a chance that you end up exposed despite all of your efforts to protect yourself. If two people have a large number of shared contacts, there is a good chance that they will be able to see many of each others’ photos despite custom privacy settings aimed at preventing such things.
Have you been tagged in a compromising Facebook photo? Is there a way to completely prevent this from happening? Is this a downside of the Facebook reality?
IMHO the problem you’re addressing isn’t limited to Facebook. Any information out there that is connected with your name can be found and be used to either improve or damage your credibility.
Settings -> Privacy -> Profile -> Photos tagged of you.
You can even set it for specific groups.
http://img.skitch.com/20081228-dittfbuqedtp4ctgcng9u9rqmg.png
I monitor all of my tagged photos *because* of this exact reason. I do not want incriminating photos of my floating around the web. But the privacy options are there, just a little hard to find. Users can also remove tags, too.
This is not a privacy fail but an unintuitive UI EPIC FAIL.
photos of me*
Mona, you’re missing the point of this article. You may have your privacy set as you described in your screenshot, but a friend who is in the incriminating photo with you and who is also a friend of your boss on Facebook may not have the same privacy settings and your boss will see you in the photo because it will come in the news feed from your friend.
??? When grouping privacy is set so your boss, for example, is not included in the list of people who can see tagged pictures of you, he/she can not the see tagged photos of you. Which means, even if it does come into your feed, your boss can not see it, even if your friends can. If you remove the tag of yourself, no one will see it. I would create a dummy account and try it with photos of yourself.
@Mona , you are incorrect. I think you are confusing my explanation. You can:
- Set privacy settings for friend lists, or
- Set privacy settings globally
You cannot:
- Set privacy settings for other people’s albums, and
- Set privacy settings for photos that you’ve been tagged in if accessed via an album that is not owned by you
Even if you add your boss to a “protected” friend list, if they are friends with a bunch of your other friends who tagged you, they still have the ability to access some photos that you’ve been tagged in.
It’s called removing the tag.
http://img.skitch.com/20081229-bui1xm4bm4b5as6b1yti6kjf42.png
What Mona said
Once you “un-tag” yourself in a photo, nobody can re-tag you. seems to me like it would (mostly) solve things.
If you’re not getting a notification when you’re tagged in a photo, you can set it so that you do.
That pic in the blog post is exactly what you don’t want floating around Facebook.
Surely all that needs to be done is Facebook providing the option of approving a tagged photo of yourself before it is tagged for the whole world to see.
So, Mona and Lorraine: y’all think because you removed your tag that your boss (or mom or dad or pastor or teacher, etc.) won’t recognize your face in the photo s/he sees in the feed from your co-worker (or brother’s or classmate’s or fellow parishener’s, etc.) who is ALSO ON THEIR LIST? Just because the tag isn’t there to confirm who you are, it’s still your face in the pic - hopefully just your face!
Just untag yourself, it is simple, really.
My goodness, you people really DON’T get it. You untag yourself, yes. BUT… those photos still exist on Facebook. And if your boss is friends with one of your friends who is ALSO tagged in that photo, your boss will be able to SEE that picture. And it might not have you tagged in it, but he or she will still recognise you. You could apply the most restrictive privacy settings possible… in fact, you could even block and delete your boss, but he’ll still see that photo from your friend’s album!
Thank you Phil, I don’t understand why people find this a difficult concept to grasp.
Untagging yourself from a photo does not delete that photo. If your boss is somehow friends with someone else tagged in that photo, or even the uploader of the album, he/she will be able to see that compromising photo of you, whether you’re tagged in it or not.