I found this twist to Facebook security settings rather interesting.  it all started from a story I read on AllFacebook.com.  A quick snippet from their posting:

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 ran through this same scenario with our teenager daughter who decided it was time to have a Facebook account.  While you may protect your own photos from being seen, if someone tags (ie: says it is you when posting a photo) and we share the same common friend, then I will see the picture.  Point blank, no hiding it.

Where does this fit in SocialStalking?  Imagine this scenario a couple of ways.

  1. Your boss happens to watch Facebook, or even a prospective employer.  They don’t see anything wrong with what you post and have checked you out quite often.  Then you attend a party when you were to be at work.  Or worse yet get caught in a compromising position during a picture.  That other person posts the pic and tags you.  Soon that picture you would have never posted ends up in a stream to be seen.  Your privacy features do not control that by default.
  2. You are a young adult out at parties drinking before legal age.  You would never tell your parents this, but like a smart parent they watch your friends on Facebook also to get an idea of how your friends behave.  The friend posts a photo of you, tagged,  in a group of drinking teenagers.  This, of course, shows in the picture stream your parent see.

The example list goes on to include pictures of you somewhere you were never intended to be.  Inside of Facebook you should visit Settings – Privacy Settings  – News Feeds and Wall to control what you allow to be placed across the streams.

However, the current privacy settings in Facebook DO NOT ALLOW YOU TO CONTROL THIS.  So if you are caught in a photo and get tagged, the best you can do is remove that friend.  However, it is to late by then

P.S. I found a good safety refresher right here by Joi and another from Jun 08 right here

Comments (4)

  1. Deb

    Reply

    You can untag yourself from the photo. Granted, it won’t prevent the initial appearance of the photo in the stream, but it is a little less rash than removing them as your friend. It would be nice if FB had a privacy setting for “photos I’ve been tagged in.”

  2. Reply

    Good idea about untagging. I should have explained more than with the social aggregators out there, it is too late once they post it. More than likely before you can remove the tag is is spread out everywhere

  3. Rono

    Reply

    Of course, regardless of tagging or un-tagging, you can always use the URL at the bottom of the picture (or the album) to access all the pictures. Without even logging into facebook. The privacy settings on facebook do not prevent this at all.

  4. myxdvp

    Reply

    There is a privacy setting so that photos you’ve been tagged in are only visible to you…

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