Facebook Privacy: Are Your Photos Private?
May 19, 2008
I loooove Facebook. And so do many of my friends! In our photo albums, we post photos of our kids, of ourselves (whether it be sunnying ourselves at the beach or something a bit more decent), of our friends, even of our pets doing stupid tricks or just looking cute (come to think of it, so do the photos of our kids).
What many people don’t realize is that each photo album has its own privacy setting. When you first create a photo album — whether it’s your first or 10th — its privacy level is automatically set to “Everyone.” That means everyone can see it. You can choose from several privacy levels: Everyone, My Network and Friends, Only people at your network, Friends of Friends, or Only Friends. You can even customize who can and can’t see these photos. See screenshot below of the page that appears when you create a photo album:
If you only want your Friends to see these photos, then be sure to select “Only Friends.” Otherwise, everyone and their hairdressers would be able to see YOUR photos even if you’ve got the rest of your profile restricted to Friends only.
You can go back and check the privacy setting of all of your albums all at once via Facebook’s Photos Privacy page. Here, you’ll see a list of all of your photo albums with the option of changing the privacy level of each of these albums. Too bad there’s no option to change all of the albums at once — so if you’ve got 20 albums, it’ll be tedious changing each one individually. Be sure to click on “Save Settings” at the bottom of the page once you’ve changed the privacy setting(s)! Here’s a screenshot of what this page looks like.
So, go forth and have fun on Facebook, and be careful with your privacy!
This is part of an on-going series of posts on Facebook privacy. See related posts on photo albums, profile page, and search options.
May 19, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Thank you! I didn’t realize that. I just edited them recently.
May 20, 2008 at 10:31 am
Hi Josh! It’s Wendy (Sunny) … I see pros to privacy settings for each album. There are some albums I may not want everyone or even specific people to see while other albums, I am alright with more eyes looking at. It does become a headache if you have a lot of albums. Is there a solution to this? :)
*shaking head* Us and our high tech expectations… which is GOOD!! Lol.
Wendy
June 13, 2008 at 5:41 am
hi…maybe you can help me with a problem. i’ve got all my albums on ‘friends only’ and when i tag a friend his friends can’t see the tagged pic even.
but if i switch it to ‘everyone’ or ‘friends of friends’ these friends of friends can now see my ENTIRE album!
is there some setting which allows friends of friends to see the tagged pic ONLY and not the rest of the album?
June 29, 2008 at 1:32 am
Hi! I just wandered if you know something weird that happens with a friend I have. His profile says he has 44 photos, but when I get into his photos’ page, I can only see 22 of them. Do you know why?
June 29, 2008 at 7:40 am
Pepe and Sub – I’m afraid I don’t know the answers to your questions. :-(
July 16, 2008 at 8:44 am
PG: no worries. thanks anyway :)
Pepe: if you look carefully your problem is the inverse of mine :)
this happens because someone like me has tagged your friend but marked the album security to ‘friends only’. so those 22 pics won’t be visible to you unless you are also friends with the owner of those albums.
subu
July 30, 2008 at 12:36 pm
thanks. I forgot this part, and remembered the whole edit application-> photos etc
September 1, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Hi….
thanks for the above…you’ve told us how to change the privacy settings for the albums that we create BUT what about when i’m tagged in a pic.
basically there are somepictures in which i’m tagged that i wouldn’t mind being seen by uni AND work mates….but then there are those certain pics that i’m tagged that i only want uni mates to see.
so basically is it possible to change privacy settings on the photos ur tagged in?
thanks
September 1, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Twinkle – good question. I don’t think there’s a way you can override the privacy setting of a photo in someone else’s album, even if you’re tagged in it. You can always remove the tag of you (even in someone else’s album) so people won’t see the “link” to you. But that doesn’t solve the problem of knowing that there are photos of YOU in other people’s albums, unless you ask them to delete these photos …
October 22, 2008 at 9:02 pm
[...] Facebook Privacy: Are Your Photos Private? What many people don’t realize is that each photo album has its own privacy setting. When you first create a photo album — whether it’s your first or 10th — its privacy level is automatically set to “Everyone.” That means everyone can see it. You can choose from several privacy levels: Everyone, My Network and Friends, Only people at your network, Friends of Friends, or Only Friends. You can even customize who can and can’t see these photos. See screenshot below of the page that appears when you create a photo album: (tags: Facebook fye1220 privacy) [...]
October 27, 2008 at 2:20 pm
FYI, even “Friends only” isn’t truly private. There’s a “public link” for each album, and anyone who can see that album can send that link to anyone else, who can then view the album without being logged into FB at all.
November 11, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Great, now they added a ‘Public link’ on each photos page so that there’s no privacy anymore. It doesn’t matter what the privacy setting is, it can always be seen through the public link. :(
November 26, 2008 at 1:13 am
Yes, with a brute force attack it should be possible to access albums.
There are 6 figures for the album ID and 5 hex characters as another parameter.
It will still take some time…
But this is so silly to pretend “Only me” can see my photos if it is technically available on the internet.
December 6, 2008 at 10:04 am
When photos are set to “everyone”, who is “everyone” that can see them?
December 6, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Is there any way to remove the public link for albums?
FB is letting you control almost every privacy aspect within FB and then they post a public link on the web?!
December 6, 2008 at 12:39 pm
You folks are right – every photo still has a public link where, if shared with others, anybody can see any of these photos. Very disturbing. Let me see if I can find something to “turn this off.”
January 25, 2009 at 9:58 pm
i dont know if this has been answered but…
it does not matter that the public link is at the bottom. only you can see it when you’re logged in and only you can pass it around. your friends or others cant
also if you do give out a public link, it only lasts 4-5 weeks
March 15, 2009 at 12:53 am
I’m noticing that if I click on comments that my friends have posted to people I’m not friends with…. I can then see their album…. Kind of scary, and hope mine isn’t the same for all strangers to see. I’ve set mine to ‘friends only’, but if someone posts a comment can anyone pull up my album from their wall?
March 23, 2009 at 8:00 pm
I just have an observation: (I think I found a loophole)
I created an album with very limited privacy (some friends only) and uploaded some pics. The pictures are apparently available to those friends… However, at the bottom of each picture there is a public link to that picture:
“Show people this album by sending them this public link:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=….. ”
Bottom line: Anyone (logged in or not to FB) that gets a hold to this “public link” address can see my picture… why? I thought only my customized set of friends could see them.
Even though if my pictures are private… there is still a way for anyone in the internet to see them… is this expected functionality? Please advise…
March 23, 2009 at 8:08 pm
tona, only you can see that public link and activate it (by clicking on it). other people viewing your album do not see that option. even if you activate it, its only available for a month or so, and since the web address is so cryptic no one will find the web page (unless you give out the address)
debbie: all that friends of friends see is the comment, not the pic
May 31, 2009 at 9:55 am
I have noticed recently that there is a new option to publish photos on my profile. If I have set a photo album to limited privacy settings (such as a custom list), and I publish the photos to my profile, will anyone who can see my profile be able to access that photo album, or will the privacy settings prevent people from clicking into that album?
Thanks!
June 14, 2009 at 12:06 am
i am putting up an album and have it blocked from a few people. if i tag myself in a few of the pictures and they click on tagged photos of me will they be able to see the tagged photos or will it not show up in tagged photos either?
thanks!
June 17, 2009 at 5:53 am
if i put a comment on my friend\’s album or picture (which is set to friends only) will it show up to my other friend\’s highlight stuff even if they\’re not on my friend\’s friends list? will they be able to view it? if they can.. that would really suck hehe
June 17, 2009 at 11:18 pm
no, if you are not friends with it will not show up in their news feeds, but they will be able to see the comment if they view the picture through his tagged photos.
any thoughts on my question anyone? :)
July 6, 2009 at 6:11 am
I have just come across your blog and its really great. I am not part of the Face book family, but found this to be very interesting and I am going to share this with my friends that are on Face Book, never really gave it much though whether ones photos would be protected, as any contact that you have can then take and share with whom ever they wanted to. Some food for thought.
August 9, 2009 at 5:15 pm
If you want true privacy, don’t put your photos on the internet. Isn’t it quite obvious?
If you want only some people to see your photos that’s one thing, but you can never control what THEY do with the photos.
If there weren’t a public link people would just do what they did before and right click/download/email or repost.
Facebook do put a public link because it’s useful. One solution would be for their developers to do create a check to see if this photo has privacy settings of less than “everyone” before putting a public web link, but that defeats the purpose of having a public link which makes it very useful to share photos with people that don’t want to sign up to an online community like facebook, just to view some photos.
Bottom line, if you have something so private you don’t want it to get out, don’t put it online, or just delete it because there are infinite other possible ways to get hold of it like me hacking your photos folder on your laptop right now! :O Panic?
Don’t click this link http://www.hackers.com
August 17, 2009 at 11:29 pm
VERY helpful. Thanks for posting.
September 2, 2009 at 3:22 am
Say if I set a photo album only to be viewed by friends on my ‘work’ list/group of friends. Then someone from the ‘work’ list/group of friends comments on the photos. What do people who are my friends but not in the ‘work’ list (so can’t see the photos) and who are also friends of the person who commented see?
Do they see the ‘Mr X commented on J’s photos’ or does it show the photo, the comment and the name of the album or something in between?
Thanks.
September 13, 2009 at 6:32 pm
If I set the privacy setting to public will the link still expire after a month or will it stay active?
For example, if I send a link to a friend who will check out the album once in while.
October 7, 2009 at 4:01 pm
If someone tags a picture of me and it automatically appears on my FB photos page, how can I remove it? I don’t want it there… I don’t see any way to delete it either…
November 4, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Is there a way to keep people from copying your pictures? I have some friends that copy my pictures and post them to their site. Then, even though I’ve changed my settings so that not everyone can see my pictures, the picture ends up on someone else’s site – negating my efforts!
*Yes, I could talk to this person and ask that she not do this, but it wouldn’t work. I also can’t defriend this person (relative).
Thanks!
November 5, 2009 at 9:50 am
“‘Sunnying’ ourselves”? Please tell me that was a careless typo and not actually how you say that phrase.
November 19, 2009 at 4:53 pm
what about this, so i notice that when im not friends with one of my friend friends, I can still see the photo that my friend is tagged on, even though im not friend with the album owner. and i can see the whole entire album when i click on the album name, but thats it, then the rest of his profile is set on private. (and NO im not friends with that person, ONLY with my friend that is tagged on one of the pics in that album) is that because that person set his profile on private but his picture album to “everyone” ? hope you guys know what i mean
November 23, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Hi i copied the link where it says (Share this album with anyone by sending them this public link: at the bottom of each albums and ive notive my friend when she clicked on the link she got access to my profile and was able to see all my post, messages, other albums ect… please help i sent it to 5 diffrent ppl and now im scared they have access to all my private stuff
November 24, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Scenario:
You make a private album, only viewable by 1 person.
The problem is if you tag that person, the image shows up on their activity wall where everyone can see it!
Now, how is that private!?
November 25, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Hello, I have a question: when a FB-friend of mine posts a photo on my wall, some of her friends can see that photo and even make comments even though they are not my friends. I have set all privacy settings to “only friends” (for each and every album too) and so has my friend. How is this possible? It can be a real problem some times. Please help if you can. Thanks!
November 30, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Hey.
I have this friend of mine (that i know, but i dont have her as a friend on my Facebook)and I made an album, in which she was tagged by another person that we both have as a common friend. So, my album is private, my photos are private. As far as I know, you can not comment on a person’s album if she/he is not your friend, (even if you’re tagged)! So, she was tagged, I dont have her on my facebook (so she wouldnt be able to comment) but though, she did! Is that possible? Or is it just something wrong with my privacy settings?
Thanks so much for reading. Sorry if you didint understand in some parts, it’s because im not 100% American and my english may suck hehe. But thanks for those who read this!
December 17, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Hi! I had some of my photo album privacies set to friends-of-friends..but what if I’ve limited it from a certain friend. Can their friends still see my photos?
December 23, 2009 at 5:33 am
I have had a major problem with the privacy of my photos. Even though Im selecting certain groups not to see certain albums… they still can its ridiculous!
February 5, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Hey I’m not sure if this q has been answered yet.
… But I created an album set to “friends only”, yet it looks like someone who I’m not friends with was able to view the album. This person is friends with my friend who was tagged in the album… Is that why the random person was able to view my pics?
Confused :S
March 22, 2010 at 5:41 am
Hey, please help me. I want to delete some of my photos in my album but i have failed. Help me know how i can do that.
Thank you.
April 3, 2010 at 7:20 pm
hi proud geek,
ummm just wondering, if I upload a pic and put it on friends only, if my friend comments on it, is her friend able to see even like a thumbnail of the pic saying something like ‘…….. commented on a photo’
thanks very muchly!
April 3, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Not only will they see that photo but they can see all photos in that album. Same if they are tagged in it. Not so private after all!
May 1, 2010 at 2:23 pm
ALL Facebook albums and photos are PUBLIC. They are only “protected” using the security-by-obscurity method, which is really bad. Here is my write-up:
http://1stopit.blogspot.com/2010/05/facebook-photo-sharing-bad.html
May 11, 2010 at 11:45 am
HellO
I used the privacy for photos on facebook but recently, Ive been adding albums and made sure that only friends cOuld view them .
But my friend tagged someone in my album who is not on my friend list. I was surprised tO see that he cOuld cOmment on the phOtOs and that means he can view the album. Is it normal?
May 11, 2010 at 12:41 pm
if you customize your album and made it into private that only specific people can see, but publish it… will other people still see what you’ve post or just the people whom you want your picture to be shown to??? everyone? or just the people you specified to see the album? thank you…
May 11, 2010 at 11:50 pm
Hi Anna,
Yes that is how it works. Also if a friend is tagged into one of your albums or they comment on a photo all their friends can see all the photos in that album even if it is set to only your friends who can see it and they are not even your friends.
Sucks huh!
Shame you can’t turn off tagging or commenting on albums.
July 9, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Facebook’s photo ap is ridiculously complicated. If I choose Friends only, everything–even if its tagged and has comments–should be Friends only! And Friends should not be able to Share or take my photo and repost and/or cut and paste. Hacking aside, FB should able to provide this basic privacy. BTW, if I forward the so-called public link to somebody, they MUST log-in to FB. Until they fix this, I don’t use it.
August 10, 2010 at 5:34 am
I recently encountered a rather irritating incident. A complete stranger wrote me a mail about my profile picture…and when out of curiosity went to his profile and then his Wall….Lo!! he has ACTUALLY “SHARED” my profile pic to his wall!!! So quickly i go thru all possible Privacy Settings and nothing there to curb this kind of trespassing. If you too go search a friend or say a stranger and click on his/her name u will find a SHARE button right under the picture….right below on left hand side. If u click that SHARE button u can either hav that pic posted on yr wall or even share with your friends….I THINK THIS IS A MAJOR MAJOR FLAW ON FACEBOOK…..I wrote on FB blog and even sent a mail to privacy centre and nothing happened…..So all I could do was to change my original pic and put my Cat’s picture on to my Profile…but how Long??
I am actually very angry on this…
August 27, 2010 at 9:57 am
please can someone tell me why i cant view my own pictures?i mean i can see them but when i click to enlarge it it doesnt open up..you would think i put security on myself but the box is still underneath for me to comment..its really doing my head in..and i do not know how to contact facebook..and its not just my pics other pple’s pics as well and they didnt put any security for me not to view their pictures…PLSSSS HELP ME!
September 4, 2010 at 9:49 am
WHAT SEETING CAN MY MY FRIENDS’ FRIENDS VIEW THE PICTURES I TAGGED THEM WITHOUT SEEING THE WHOLE ALBUM??? HELP… BIG THANKS