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?
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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.
Comment by Facebook User — December 27, 2008 @ 4:14 pm
Facebook still has a ways to go in terms of giving people control over what gets broadcast, especially since there’s really no way to see what they’re showing to other people about you.
The fact that you can’t approve individual tags before they’re visible to others is a *big* missing privacy setting in Facebook. In fact, there’s a lot of things that should have “moderate” settings – wall posts, photo comments, etc.
Also the fact that any time someone comments on a photo, it’s broadcast to everyone’s elses News Feed is a big problem. I’ve had friends comment “Please take this photo down” on an embarrassing photo, thus making sure all of their friends see the comment and the photo…
But, I guess splaying everything on the news feed is “engaging” and thus privacy concerns take a back seat.
Comment by thingy — December 27, 2008 @ 10:12 pm
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.
Comment by Mona Nomura — December 28, 2008 @ 12:24 am
photos of me*
Comment by Mona Nomura — December 28, 2008 @ 12:25 am
FACEBOOK Privacy is ONE EPIC FAIL in my opinion. I am disgusted by it.
See group for privacy/security concerns with FaceBook and Applications: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50369949401
Any lawyers around here?
Comment by Liam Vickery — December 28, 2008 @ 1:08 am
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.
Comment by Raphael Pungin — December 28, 2008 @ 5:40 am
I’ve seen some topless photos of a work colleague because she had not set up her privacy settings correctly. (Well, for that raeson and because she bulk uploaded all of her photos in one go without checking). She seemed to think only her partner could see all her photos but she’d incorrectly set up her privacy settings.
Being a good friend I told her what she’d done. (But not before I’d taken copies of the photos for my own entertainment!)
Comment by mrhunnybun — December 28, 2008 @ 6:05 am
??? 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.
Comment by Mona Nomura — December 28, 2008 @ 8:31 am
The other problem is comments on tagged photos of you. Yes, your privacy settings may say, "do not show tagged photos of me" to this friend group, but the second the photo is commented on it appears in your OWN newsfeed. Once there its possible for it to appear in your blocked friends newsfeed, or alternatively they could be stalking you and will see it on your profile page..
Facebook needs three types of overall privacy settings – personal / family / professional – I can allocate people to one or all of these groups. The way I grade these people matters…
Comment by jez — December 28, 2008 @ 12:02 pm
mmm.. why is my photo Mona N??
Comment by jez — December 28, 2008 @ 12:03 pm
I can still see photos of someone I've blocked and vice versa, as well.
Comment by Catherine — December 28, 2008 @ 2:20 pm
Unless all your FB friends configure their privacy settings properly, your photo can leak out via other tagged friends in the same photo or when others comment on that photo. I can't remember how many times I was "invited" to view photos of "friends of friends" via Newsfeed (and that worries me).
So, next time you post for a photo, just make sure it's alright if the world sees it.
Comment by Just another FB user — December 28, 2008 @ 3:21 pm
@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.
Comment by Nick ONeill — December 28, 2008 @ 4:27 pm
It's called removing the tag.
http://img.skitch.com/20081229-bui1xm4bm4b5as6b1y...
Comment by Mona Nomura — December 28, 2008 @ 10:38 pm
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.
Comment by Lorraine — December 29, 2008 @ 4:59 am
That pic in the blog post is exactly what you don't want floating around Facebook.
Comment by Nick Stamoulis — December 29, 2008 @ 7:09 am
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.
Comment by anonymous — December 29, 2008 @ 9:46 am
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!
Comment by txmusick — December 30, 2008 @ 9:24 am
Just untag yourself, it is simple, really.
Comment by Kevin — January 2, 2009 @ 9:36 pm
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!
Comment by Phill — January 12, 2009 @ 1:53 am
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.
Comment by Karimi — June 30, 2009 @ 10:57 pm
I just found a whole lot of ghost applications which is still allowed to be viewed by everyone & facebook is not telling the users about. Click your application settings. In the show drop down menu (default is recently used) click Allowed to post (advisable 2 click every option).There is a drop down menu (never allowed to post any stories) u will see all your applications is set to everyone(privacy) in Edit ur settings.Second, in the same drop down menu in application settings click Authorized then edit settings(default is everyone) or choose to delete the ghost app by clicking the X.
Comment by andro — June 12, 2010 @ 1:57 pm