Monday 26 April 2010

This is an Experiment

I recently came across a furore on a forum because one member used another member's private Facebook photo to poke fun at her. She said she had made her photo albums private, so that only friends could view them. And yet this person - who wasn't one of her Facebook friends - had posted this photo on a public forum, and it was clearly visible to everyone, despite being hosted by Facebook.

So, long story short... Can you see the pic in the link below? And are you one of my Facebook friends?



UPDATE: This utterly gorgeous pic was in fact taken by Ms SpiralSkies, whose details you will see in the comments. She is very talented!

22 comments:

pierre l said...

Yes, I can see the photo and no I am not your Facebook friend.

pierre l said...

This sounded a bit harsh. I would probably love to be one of your Facebook friends, but I don't even know what your account is called.
Having said that, your book might well need a Facebook page when you are ready to publish it.

Beleaguered Squirrel said...

That's OK, I didn't think you were being harsh!

Clearly though, Facebook security is rubbish. I don't actually mind who sees my pics, but still, they claim only certain people can see them.

pierre l said...

I am not absolutely sure we can blame Facebook for this one though. Am I not seeing a copy of the Facebook picture copied by you into the blog?
I have in the past seen actual links in blogs to Facebook things that I couldn't see because I wasn't their friend. But Facebook privacy has changed a lot in the last few months.

Jenny Beattie said...

Yes I can see it and yes I am a friend with you on FB.

Jen said...

Nice photo!! :)

Queenie said...

Yes and yes (and I wish Blogger had the facility to add speech bubbles to photos, because that one's crying out for a caption competition!)

Beth said...

yes and yes.

the hosting url comes up as http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs277.snc1/10431_100428119978242_100000331631326_8512_7646262_n.jpg if that helps at all.

Rachel Green said...

Yes I see it and I don't think I'm on your FB friends list.

Karen said...

I can see the photo but I'm not a friend (why not?!)

I don't post photos on Facebook any more :o(

Anonymous said...

Yes and yes. But then that doesn't prove anything, does it?

I can't see any photos directly on your profile (http://www.facebook.com/clare.sudbery#!/clare.sudbery?v=photos).

Okay, I tried again by logging out of faceache and deleting the cookie. I can still see the photograph in this post (http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs277.snc1/10431_100428119978242_100000331631326_8512_7646262_n.jpg).

Megan said...

Yup. Which is why I lecture all my little students about NOT posting any drunk/naked/illegal-activity photos of themselves on facebook - private or not. Dim little bunnies...

Flowerpot said...

I'm not one of your FB friends (I dont think) but am happy to be so!

Beleaguered Squirrel said...

Captain Black, indeed it proves nothing if you are my Facebook friend, but I couldn't be bothered typing all that. :O)

Pierre, no, I haven't copied the picture into my blog. I've copied the url, which is another thing entirely. The picture itself is being hosted by Facebook, and as such really shouldn't be visible to anyone who isn't my friend.

You might reasonably make the point that anyone with access coulc copy the pic onto their hard disks and then redistribute, but it is actually possible to prevent people from doing even that. I think.

Sorry to anyone who isn't my Facebook friend, but all this security stuff has meant that I'm now trying to restrict Facebook to family and close friends only.

It is indeed an utterly gorgeous photo Jen, and thankyou vey much for taking it! Actually that was remiss of me. I should credit you. Hang on...

JoeinVegas said...

Yes, I too can see the photo and I am not your facebook friend (waait - why not? - wait . . .)
I really want to be if you start posting drunk/naked/illegal-activity photos.

pierre l said...

At the risk of getting things thrown at me, it seems to me that you are publishing the internal address of where the picture is (i.e. a "back door"). I wouldn't expect Facebook security to be involved. I would expect protection if you using a link of the type www.facebook.com/beleaguered.squirrel/...
Having said that, I only use Facebook because some of my author friends only publish their news on there and for close family. I am also concerned about the "friends of friends" access.

pierre l said...

I just read the first paragraph again. I wonder if this "friends of friend" thing is involved here. This was one of the dilutions of privacy that was introduced in Facebook a few months back, with further dilution a few days ago. Some of these changes happened by default unless the user went and changed the settings manually.

Cathy said...

Yes I can see it (gorgeous) and no I'm not a FB friend.

Beth said...

have you checked what the access level is for being able to see this specific pic? if it's set to friends of friends that might explain it?

Beleaguered Squirrel said...

I checked, the access for this pic is supposed to be Friends Only.

Pierre, it wasn't a back door. I just right-clicked and then copied/pasted the url. It's a standard way of sharing pics on the internet, and easy to protect against if you have decent security... which Facebook doesn't!

But like I say, I don't actually care about who sees my photos. I just wanted to confirm that their security is indeed rubbish, no matter what your privacy settings are.

Sarsparilla said...

Yes, no, and even bloglines could see it.

Helen said...

I can see the picture on your blog but if I go to your FB profile (I'm not a friend) then I can't see any photos due to your privacy settings.