Sophos Cloud Optix
Facebook has introduced a new feature for iPhone, iPad and Android users which means you can automatically sync any photos you take on your mobile device with your Facebook account.
This removes the nuisance of having to manually choose which photos to upload.
Here are nine things you should know about Facebook Photo Syncing:
- You have to opt-in to Facebook Photo Sync. Facebook hasn’t turned it on by default. Chances are that your first knowledge of it will be when you access Facebook on your iOS or Android device, and are encouraged to “Get started”.
It’s good that Facebook has decided to make users consciously opt-in to this service. There would have been a loud out-cry if they hadn’t.
- If you enable the feature, your last 20 photographs and every subsequent photo you take, will be automatically uploaded in the background to a private Facebook album. So you may want to check what photos you have already taken first.
- The photos that you have synced from your phone are not visible to any other Facebook users. When you view your synced photos, you can choose then to share them on your Facebook timeline or send them as a message to a friend.
- If you’re worried that Facebook Photo Sync will eat into your data plan, you can tell Facebook to only sync when you are on Wi-Fi rather than via your cellular network.
(Note that Facebook says it will sync photos at a smaller size – approximately 100KB – when you use a 3G or 4G network)
- Facebook says it won’t sync your photos when battery levels are “low”.
- Automatic uploading of every photo you take means every photo you take. Yes, including the ones you took for that guy you’re flirting with, or the one you snapped of that part of your body you can’t quite see properly with a mirror.
Furthermore, if someone takes a photograph of you without your permission it will be automatically uploaded to Facebook – you may demand that they delete the photo off their phone, but will it also have been removed from their private Facebook album?
- Every photograph synced from your phone will be able to be mined for information by Facebook.
Photos taken on mobile devices can include meta data such as the location where the photo was taken – and this could be used to determine where you are, and help Facebook display localised advertising.
Furthermore, Facebook could integrate its facial recognition technology with Photo Sync, analyse your photos to see whose faces it recognises and automatically tag their names.Over time a comprehensive database of where you have been, and who with, is built up.
- If you opt-in to Facebook Photo Sync, you are no longer in charge of what photos you upload to Facebook. In the past, you could decide what images you uploaded to the social network, and which pictures it could analyse for its own purposes.
Now, all photos – good and bad – will be available to Facebook. That doesn’t mean anyone apart from you and Facebook’s servers will be able to see them, but there’s clearly a reduction in your level of control.
- You can disable Facebook Photo Sync by following these instructions.
You can learn more about Facebook’s new Photo Sync feature by visiting its official help pages.
If you are on Facebook and want to keep yourself informed about the latest news from the world of internet security and privacy, join the Sophos Facebook page where more than 200,000 people regularly discuss these issues and best practice.
Facebook icon image from Shutterstock.
Ive noticed that facebook show a message saying friends of yours are using this, even when they are not… i know cos my name was being shown to my friends and i'm deaf not using it… naughty facebook!
Yes, I experienced the same thing.
Yet another, on a very, very long list of reasons NOT to use Facebook.
I don't think it's a reason not to use Facebook entirely. If you aren't happy with a feature then don't use it.
Oh jeez what a terrible idea. Who on earth would want every single one of their pictures auto-synced?
I agree! This is not only useless for 99% of the FB users but it can also raise even more privacy concerns.
This opens up another Pandora's Box if I ever saw one. I saw this feature while on FB the other day and I hurried to cancel it.
Just another reminder that Facebook users aren't the customers, they're the product.
I use the iPhone camera for all kinds of things. Snap the grocery list that's written on the whiteboard. Reach behind the desktop computer and snap its serial number. Or I'll take three pics of a scene from different angles and choose the best one to upload. Even without the significant privacy issues, I wouldn't (and didn't) allow this feature.
Hi Neil
Yes, I used my smartphone to take a snap of the inaccessible serial number on the back of a TV before. I can’t imagine why I would want that uploaded to an (admittedly) private album on Facebook either.
Once again Facebook performs the valuable service of providing yet another intelligence test. In this case, anyone who enables Facebook Photo Sync is clearly an idiot.
I've suggested that people send feedback to FB, particularly about the deceptive messaging, from the bottom of this page: https://m.facebook.com/help/photosync.
Note that it isn't and-and-out lie: "Graham Cluely shares photos on Facebook" is undoubtedly true, but that is a long way from automatically uploading all his pictures to Facebook!
It's interesting that Google offered this feature from day one with very little comment. It seems that, rightly or wrongly, many people don't trust Facebook. On the face of it, this new feature does no more than the Google version.
I recently got a google account it has the same feature, and just managed to stop some slightly embarrassing photos appearing, thanks for the heads up,don’t want to make the same mistake again.
In case it has slipped the author's or anyone else's knowledge, the Google+ and Dropbox apps on iDevices have been able to do this for a while.
You're quite correct.
One interesting difference, however.
Dropbox doesn't incorporate facial recognition technology and has never shown any interest – as far as I'm aware – in gathering that kind of data about its users.
Google+ can do facial recognition, but you have to consciously opt-in to it. Which is how it should be.
Facebook does facial recognition of your pics and, as we explain at http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/06/19/disabl… – you can't disable it. Well, unless you live in Europe where FB has been pressured to disable the feature by regulators.
I'm not saying that Facebook Photo Sync is a bad thing. Indeed there are aspects of the technology which Facebook seems to have implemented quite sensibly. But I think it's right for people to hear the benefits and the potential drawbacks, so they can make their own mind up about whether they wish to enable the feature or not.
Yup, there are aspects of this tech that are VERY useful. Snapping the inaccessible back of your TV and then having that pic auto-synch to your PC so you can read the serial number via a decent-sized screen, say. Or having your photos saved in case anything happens to your phone. Or in some cases being able to recover a stolen device because the thief took photos with it and they synched to your account.
But yes, Facebook does complicate the issue somewhat! Let's just say I said no to FB's kind offer, and will be sticking with Dropbox for my photo synchin g. (-:
Europe is starting to sound like a better place to live haha. They ban fb facial recognition and also GMOs in food… Seems like they care more about their peoples safety and freedom
The GMO ban was a political decision based on politics, not science, not safety.
Oohh look.
Another lovely espionage tool for stalkers, data-miners and advertisers.
How kind of them. [/sarcasm]
So which photos get uploaded exactly? The photos you take using the phone's main camera app, or the ones you take when you select the "photo" option on the Facebook app? If the latter, then at least you'll be aware that if you're in the Facebook app and taking a photo, then it will be uploaded. Facebook's poor help pages don't seem to clarify this at all.
You can delete any photo that is synced to FB. I am not saying that FB will or will not keep a copy. But, just letting people know that you can delete them by going to photos >sync and tapping (on your phone) or clicking (from your PC) and delete.
≎ The 10th thing is old news, but relevant: Facebook believes it has unlimited rights to use any photo uploaded to their system, for any purpose.
All my photos go to flickr (where I can choose from a variety of copyright licenses), and I link some of them to Facebook. 9They claim they have rights to the thumbnail, but my flickr upload establishes my copyright.)
Wow! Now,it's much easier to upload photos to facebook! Thanks for the full guide 🙂
Many features of Facebook are absurd. I wish I could slap FB owners sometimes. Their VPNS, Privacy, and many other networking scenarios are not suitable and appropriate.
If I delete my photos synced with Facebook on my phone, Facebook will delete them too?
No you have to manually go out and delete them on facebook.
hi Graham if i save a photo that somebody else sent me will that sync to facebook. and also if i delete a facebook pic on my laptop does it go into the recycle bin. look forward to your reply. thanks
I think the idia is all right its not on by default and its private but I suggest password access
I can’t do anything with my synced pix that r on fb except delete em
This is terrible. There are thousands of images uploaded to my facebook account before I realized this was happening. I do not recall giving facebook authorization to do this and feel that my privacy has been invaded. Even worse, deleting all of the images one by one will take days. I’m on a mac and I haven’t been able to find a way to delete the images all at once. I feel that facebook has purposely made it impractical to remove all of these images.
I agree. There should be an ability to “disable” Facebook Photo Sync. (As easily as it was to enable it). And then, of course, to delete all of the synced photos off of FB and hopefully not deleting all originals off my phone.
I know I’m a few years late on this discussion. It’s been that long since I’ve been on FB.
And now I’m a senior, so any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
Are there updated instructions for this? I tried to follow the link for removal and the options on my iPhone are not available. Help! I hit the wrong button by mistake and I want to turn this off as soon as possible!!!
Not only has FB removed the option to Delete your Synced pictures, I am running some tests, and it seems that FB is syncing my pictures even if I delete the FB and Messenger apps.
I deleted the apps, took a picture, then I moved the picture from my Camera folder to another folder and after that I reinstalled FB, after the reinstall I open my FB app and I see the picture I took while the apps were deleted stored in their database.
How is this possible or even allowed?, I deleted the apps so they would stop storing my pictures in their database and yet this didn’t help. Most of the pictures I want erased are obviously nudes. .. Feeling Violated.
I accidentally allowed fb to sync my photos to my fb gallery photos when I got on there to look at my photos 2 days later I saw pictures that I deleted from my photo app on my fb photo gallery, very private ones that I wouldn’t want anyone to see. I had to delete each photo… I hope no one saw them.
Tip #9 doesn’t do what it says. When I follow the link, I don’t see anything that would help me disable it.
So is there a way to download a picture from FB, which I’d like to keep, without giving FB the right to access my photo files? This appears to be what they are asking for when I try and download a photograph from a FB site, as a condition of downloading it….