Security → Facebook changes privacy settings for millions of users

Facebook changes privacy settings for millions of users - facial recognition is enabled
by Graham Cluley on June 7, 2011

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When Facebook revealed last year it was introducing facial recognition technology to help users tag their friends in photographs, they gave the functionality to North American users only.

Most of the rest of us found the option in our privacy settings was "not yet available", which meant we could neither enable or disable it. We simply had to wait until Facebook decided to roll it out to our account.

Well, now might be a good time to check your Facebook privacy settings as many Facebook users are reporting that the site has enabled the option in the last few days without giving users any notice.

There are billions of photographs on Facebook's servers. As your Facebook friends upload their albums, Facebook will try to determine if any of the pictures look like you. And if they find what they believe to be a match, they may well urge one of your Facebook friends to tag it with your name.

The tagging is still done by your friends, not by Facebook, but rather creepily Facebook is now pushing your friends to go ahead and tag you.

Remember, Facebook does not give you any right to pre-approve tags. Instead the onus is on you to untag yourself in any photo a friend has tagged you in. After the fact.

If this is something you're uncomfortable with, disable "Suggest photos of me to friends" now.

Here's how you do it...

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see the full article at Sophos Naked Security

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Gladiator Security Forum: www.gladiator-antivirus.com/

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many Facebook users are reporting that the site has enabled the option in the last few days without giving users any notice.

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They just really believe all info is their property, don't they? That is one sick company.

This has not been available on my account for some time and is still not - some are seeing the feature now being enabled, others are not.

I don't know what else users should read just to see what that company is actually doing...

+1
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Keep it simple, it'll become complex by itself...

How does FB know what you look like? I've posted my Snowshoe cat as an avatar. Will I get stuff from other Snowshoe cat owners?

Thanks for the information, checked and saw it enabled so disabled it. As usual, FB rolling out then new "feature" automatically enabled. I am sort of surprised there hasn't been more law suits against this company.

Ho Hum....

That has been available for months in my account.

It is disabled, has been since they introduced it. Yes I had to disable it.

I make it a habit to check my Privacy setting often.

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Most Facebook users still don't know how to set their privacy options safely, finding the whole system confusing. It's even harder though to keep control when Facebook changes the settings without your knowledge.

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Not confusing, easy to learn. Facebook did give notice to users.

Making Photo Tagging Easier This was originally posted Jan 6, 2011.
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Chris
Living in Paradise!!

Sophos' open letter to Facebook

Thanks for the update, somehow did not see this mentioned elsewhere and I try to keep on top of things like this.

On my privacy page did see this, which appears new:

"[X] Let friends of people tagged in my photos and posts see them"

It is checked by default and I do not recall seeing it last week, know anything about that?

If it were not for family, I doubt I would even use it. Though not much is there that could not be found elsewhere on the net about me.

Par for the course on Facebook. Every time there's a change involving privacy settings--new ones being added, old ones being edited--Facebook defaults the most open setting possible.
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Think Outside the Fox.

Excellent - thanks! Those changes alone would do wonders ...

It appeared in my account Privacy Settings some time in April.

said by "How does tagging a friend in a photo affect the photos privacy setting? - Facebook Help Center" :

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When you tag a friend in a photo:

If you have the box checked next to "Let friends of people tagged in my photos and posts see them" on your Privacy Settings page, then friends of the tagged person will be able to see the photo.

If this box isn't checked, the photos privacy setting will not be expanded. However, the person who is tagged will be able to see the photo, regardless of the photos privacy setting.

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By the way if you are tagged in a photo and you don't want to be, you can remove the tag.

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Chris
Living in Paradise!!

Thank you for your explanation. Do not Tag nor Tag others much, so not really a problem.

Facebook attempts to justify why photo tagging is ok

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I checked my setting and facial recognition was set to "enabled." How it got that way, I have no idea. I disabled it.

I just checked my privacy settings and facial recognition was set to "enabled" too. I immediately disabled it.

Thanks for the heads-up. I just checked and mine was enabled and promptly disabled it.

And they do a fairly good job at it too.

Photo tagging is not new. No different than writing the name of everyone in the picture on the back or on the album page. How many old pictures do you have in which you can't remember the names of everyone it in. I have quite a few I wish I had "tagged".

FWIW, I don't tag. I don't have many pictures on Facebook. I have two, a profile picture and a group picture of my family (no tagging). I do have friends, relatives that do tag. I might tag if I start posting more pictures. Tagging can be used to let you know about a specific picture too, even it your not in it. I like that, after viewing the picture I simply remove the tag.
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Chris
Living in Paradise!!

Same situation with my wife's account—"This is not yet available to you." Better never than late...will disable it as soon as it shows up.
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Knowledge is learning something new every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day.

It would seem that most, if not all Canuck Facebook users do not have this invasive feature available to them as of yet, Pentangle , keep an eye out.

Should we be insulted?

Nope