And so, you want to know how to sort out the privacy settings on your photos. Every bit with everything regarding privacy on Facebook, the answer isn't immediately obvious. Because that would be far too easy.

In this article, we're going to await at why photo privacy matters, and so explain how yous can protect your images from the eyes of strangers.

Keep reading to larn everything you need to know nigh Facebook photo privacy settings...

Photo Privacy Is More Important Than You Think

Keeping your photographs private—or at to the lowest degree restricted to a pocket-sized grouping of friends—is more important than you lot might remember. And it'south not just because a creep from your former high school is still liking everything you post.

And so, what are some of the pitfalls of having your photographs publicly accessible?

  • Theft: No, nosotros're not talking about identity theft. Despite the scaremongering, that's difficult to achieve with just a photo. Nosotros're talking near a physical burglary at your business firm. A moving picture of you on a beach, or fifty-fifty at a local eating place, informs a would-be criminal that you're not at home.
  • Personal Details: Is there a picture of your driving license on the table in the background? Take yous left your email business relationship logged in on your computer screen? Is your car's license plate in the shot? Information like this is like gold grit to cyber-criminals.
  • Location: Does your photo reveal where you lot are? If yous're at abode, have yous simply revealed your habitation address to the world?
  • Embarrassment: Has someone posted a snap of you in a compromising position? You probably don't desire your family unit or your boss to run across it.

Facebook and Photo Privacy

Of course, the warnings above apply to all forms of social media. But in this commodity, we're simply going to focus on Facebook. How can you control who sees your photos on Facebook? Go on reading to find out.

1. Inline Privacy Controls

Permit'due south first at the very beginning. Even if the privacy of your sometime photos is a mess, information technology'southward fourth dimension to turn over a new leaf. And then let'southward make sure the privacy is correct for all your new photos going forwards.

When yous upload a new picture to Facebook, y'all tin employ the same privacy controls as you do for regular text posts. In the upper left-paw corner of the new post box, yous'll see a dropdown menu. This card controls who tin can run across the post.

You lot have six options to choose from: Public, Friends, Friends except (to exclude some people), Specific friends, Only me, and Custom.

Make your selection, click on Photo/Video to select your snap, then select Mail service.

2. Old Photos

OK, and then making sure your new photos are individual is quite straightforward, simply what nigh your sometime photos? Depending on your addiction level, we could be talking about thousands of images.

Luckily, information technology is possible to change the privacy level of your old snaps. You take 3 methods open to you:

Individual Photos: If you only want to modify the privacy setting of one photo, yous need to locate the one-time Facebook post on your wall, in your Action Log, or in your albums.

Open the photo, and in the upper right-paw corner, you'll see the same dropdown menu every bit you come across when setting inline privacy. Only choose your desired audience.

Albums: If you desire to modify the privacy of an album, navigate to your photos folio from your profile and click on Albums. Choose the album you want to alter, click Edit, and choose your audience.

Yous can edit photos on a case-by-instance footing in the Profile Pictures album, the Encompass Photos album, the Mobile Uploads anthology, and the Timeline Photos album. However, other albums apply the same setting to all the photos within them.

Restrict Access to Everything: If you've taken a laissez-faire arroyo to Facebook privacy in the past, you might take also many pictures and too many albums to use either of the to a higher place methods. In that case, information technology'southward improve to change the privacy settings of everything you've always posted to the network.

This covers your photos, just besides your videos, wall posts, comments, Likes, and other content.

Go to Settings and Privacy > Privacy > Limit the audience for posts you've shared with friends of friends or Public and click on Limit past posts > Limit Old Posts to brand the changes. Annihilation you take shared with friends of friends or the full general public will alter to Friends only. The changes cannot exist undone.

Pro Tip: Use the Activeness Log

For a quick way of seeing which photos are shared with the public, you can use the Activeness Log. It'll relieve you the time of trawling through endless albums.

Click on the Action Log link from your profile page, click on Filter, and select and select Photos and Videos in the pop-upwards box. Next, cull Public in the driblet-down box that appears.

Photos You're Tagged In

Slap-up, then that covers everything you've uploaded yourself, but what about photos of you lot that other people accept uploaded? How tin you lot make those individual?

Well, you can't. They're non your photos, and you don't have command over them. Merely you tin can untag yourself.

To remove a tag, navigate to the photograph in question, click on the small pointer in the upper right-hand corner, and select Report/Remove Tags. Click Untag Photos to complete the process.

Unfortunately, the photo will still be visible to other users on Facebook. As long as the image does not pause the network's Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, there'southward zilch you can do.

If you feel the prototype is abusive, you click on the Written report link to let Facebook know. If the company agrees, it volition remove the photo.

Tag Suggestions

Y'all can't preclude other people from tagging you in photos, but y'all can terminate your proper name from being shown to them when they upload a photo. It means when someone uploads a photograph, Facebook will not propose your proper noun to them every bit a recommended tag, fifty-fifty if it recognizes that the prototype looks similar yous.

In the latest version of Facebook, you need to disable the face up recognition feature to foreclose the suggestions from appearing. Go to Settings and Privacy > Settings > Face Recognition and make certain the setting displays No.

Does Facebook Photo Privacy Concern You?

We hope this article has made you lot realize photo privacy is of import and helped y'all to sympathise the steps you tin can have to ensure images of you aren't being exposed in the public realm. Because despite what tech companies would like you to believe, online privacy is important.

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About The Author

Dan Price (1607 Articles Published)

Dan joined MakeUseOf in 2014 and has been Partnerships Director since July 2020. Achieve out to him for inquires virtually sponsored content, affiliate agreements, promotions, and whatever other forms of partnership. Yous tin can also find him roaming the testify floor at CES in Las Vegas every year, say hi if you lot're going. Prior to his writing career, he was a Financial Consultant.

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