Tag Archives: tagged photos

Download Your Tagged Facebook Photos Before Your Friends Remove Them

Tips & Tricks, Using Digi Me, , , ,

We received a support email overnight asking a question about downloading tagged Facebook photos, and thought that it was a topic worth quickly writing a blog about.

The query was whether or not SocialSafe can download photos you are tagged in (that aren’t your own), even after the uploader has deleted them from Facebook. The answer is unfortunately ‘no’, although this is nothing to do with SocialSafe, but is in fact down to Facebook’s API, which determines what can lawfully be seen, accessed and downloaded.

Having said that, if you have already used SocialSafe to download your tagged photos from Facebook and then the user removes them from Facebook or deactivates their account, then you will still have a copy of them – along with any comments, likes and tags – safely stored in your SocialSafe library.

The same goes for all of the other content that you back up with SocialSafe – should anything happen to the originals on the networks themselves, if you’ve backed it up to your SocialSafe library then it will be yours to keep forever.

With social network profiles coming under increasing scrutiny when people are applying for jobs and even if the content depicts harmless fun, when viewed out of context by someone else it could mean the difference between landing that dream job or not. So understandably people are purging their social accounts of content, but this can have a collateral affect on their friends’ online memories too.

If you don’t want to run the risk of losing any of the moments from your past that make you you, then use SocialSafe to download your own library of you from your social networks, and make sure that you are the one who has ownership of your data.

Facebook – A Responsible Approach to Data Ownership

Announcements, Using Digi Me, , , ,

Our application SocialSafe was launched in mid-June this year and in its first version allowed users to download to their desktop computer details of their Friends, their own profile, all their photos and also 3rd party photos in which the user was tagged.  All this was accomplished using the comprehensive Facebook API which developers can use for free, subject to Facebook’s Terms of Service.  From reviews and comments received SocialSafe has been welcomed by all as an extremely valuable service; however, whilst acknowledging the utility of SocialSafe, Facebook have raised the question to us of whether we are breaching the privacy rules associated with Facebook data by downloading tagged photos without explicit permission from the users who posted the photos.

We had considered this originally and felt that as the SocialSafe user was in the photo and as the originator’s privacy settings allowed the user to see and be tagged in the photo that this was giving implicit permission for the user to download the photo; however, as this was not a clear cut case we included a notification process to tell the photo originator that our SocialSafe user had downloaded the photo.  After receiving an indication from Facebook that they felt that explicit permission was required, rather than the implicit permission we were relying on, we re-evaluated our policy.  Taking the view that we have already expressed on this blog that the data belongs to the originator (summed up in the phrase “Its your data”), we are making some changes because whilst it is OK to download to your desktop any data you have originated on Facebook through the Facebook API, we believe downloading any data from another user does require explicit permission from that other user.

As a result we will this week put out an update to SocialSafe which temporarily removes the tagged photo download functionality (the update also includes a new Time Capsule feature).  We will be restoring the tagged photo functionality in a subsequent version we hope to release in two to three weeks, but this time we will include a smart method for friends of the SocialSafe user to explicitly authorise or prohibit the download of their photos for that SocialSafe user.  This will involve users in an extra step, but will ensure that SocialSafe follows the cleanest data policy of all – the user who originates data owns it and must authorise anybody else to use it.

We recognise that users who have bought SocialSafe to date have done so in good faith believing that the existing functionality will remain as is, whilst future updates will come with increasing functionality (such as the Time Capsule feature being released this week).  We believe that we have found a good solution to downloading tagged photos, but ultimately some of our existing users may not agree and may feel that we have unilaterally reduced the available functionality to their detriment.  If you are such a user then we are happy to offer you an unconditional refund of your payment to us – please just contact us with a request for repayment and we will do so within 3 days and hopefully sooner.

At SocialSafe we are, as our name suggests, committed to keeping your social data safe and to having the most explicit and correct privacy policy to protect everyone’s data.  We believe the change in policy we have described above reflects this and we hope you feel so too.  Future updates to SocialSafe will follow this policy, as will other products from the iBundle stable (iBundle and 1minus1 are Joint Venture partners in the production of SocialSafe).

Julian Ranger

Chairman iBundle & SocialSafe

Facebook – whose data is it anyway?

Discussion, , , , ,

So you use Facebook extensively – post your status, upload photos, tag yourself and others in photos, and so on.  That is a large amount of data and particularly time you have put into your Facebook account – who owns that data, what can they do with it and is it there forever?

To answer the first question – it’s definitively yours and the Facebook T&Cs do reflect this.  But (there always has to be a but) Facebook, in common with a lot of other sites retain rights over your data.  Why do they do this? – generally so they can provide you with the service you want from them, which to me is very reasonable.  However, it is possible that they want access to that data to exploit it in other ways – such as targeted advertising; as this is often how they get the revenue to provide the free service you want to use this also appears reasonable.  Of course they may go further (Facebook doesn’t at the time of writing) to actually be able to sell your data or reuse/repackage it.  So whilst you own your data, you should look at what the service you are using can do with it.  Interestingly in the Techcrunch expose of Twitter documents Twitter wants to “take a far reaching license to the content, with two exceptions (endorsement, content profit), and no opt-out.” – this could well be beyond what seems like ‘fair’ use to provide the service and straightforward revenue generation to fund the service.

Does any of this actually matter? – I think it does, but for a different reason than what the sites do with it.  You own your data, but Facebook keep it for you.  If you read their Terms & Conditions you will see though that they have no duty of care over that data – if they lose it, if it gets hacked and replaced, if they want to unilaterally close down your account (presumably because they think you have breached their T&Cs) then that is it – no data!  Your data, but you no longer have it.

We all tend to use Facebook and similar social sites as an immediate thing – my current status, photos of the event happening now or last night – but do we think of the future?  Do you want to be able to access those photos next month, in a year, in 5 years?  Facebook won’t keep things forever even if they don’t ‘accidentally’ lose them – just try seeing how far back you can get your status updates.

So my big question is: where is your backup of those photos, of your friends, of your status – do you have a local copy?  My own sons amazingly (well to me) had over 1,000 photos each on Facebook, all uploaded from their camera phones and deleted from those phones after upload – no copies anywhere else.  When their friends closed their accounts or lost them, they lost those photos they were tagged in – lost those reminders of the memories of those events

So, if it is your data, which it is, then take control of that data and ensure you have your own copy on your own computer or other media and do this backup regularly. It won’t surprise you that is why we created the SocialSafe application.

(Note: above I refer to the Techcrunch expose of Twitter documents – that was hard for me to quote.  My gut feel is that they shouldn’t have used the documents they received – it wasn’t their data; however, now they have been used the information, it is widely disseminated and hence no conversation can be complete without it.)

Facebook back up application released every Facebook user should have.

Announcements, , , ,
http://www.socialsafe.net – 15th June 2009
To help Facebook users backup their account data, new application SocialSafe has been launched to download friends and photos from a user’s Facebook account and store them safely on their computer.
At launch the SocialSafe application enables Facebook users to download their friends, photos, photos their friends have tagged them in and their profile information from the Facebook website to their computer or other device. All this for an introductory one-off price of $2.99.
According to Facebook we each have on average 120 friends and between the 200 million of us, upload over 850 million photos each month. It is incredibly easy to upload photos now without ever going near the computer.
Here is the problem. No web service is infallible, any of us could have our Facebook account hacked, deleted or simply lost. It is painful when you forget to save a file and something goes wrong. It is sickening when a hard drive fails and you frantically try to remember when you last backed up. Can you imagine what it would feel like to lose all your friends on Facebook? Can you name them all without looking? What about those photos you uploaded directly to Facebook, are they anywhere else?
SocialSafe is an incredibly simple application, built on Adobe’s Air platform, to provide a one touch backup solution that works on PCs and Macs. Once activated it will save all your friends, all your photos, photos friends have tagged you in, and the personal information you’ve added to create your profile. All stored locally, all available to upload to your Facebook account again, when needed.
This is just the beginning for SocialSafe and to reflect that, the application is on sale! The first 10,000 copies will be just $2.99 for total peace of mind. According to Facebook’s statistics that’s a little over 2 cents for each of our friends!
Save your friends by downloading SocialSafe today.
http://www.socialsafe.net
About SocialSafe
SocialSafe is a new company on a mission to save Facebook friendships one backup at a time. SocialSafe’s first standalone application connects your Facebook account to your computer within seconds to store your photos, friends and personal information locally, creating a backup of the major elements of your Facebook profile. The application is built on Adobe Air to ensure seamless integration with PCs and Macs. After it’s introductory pricing the SocialSafe application will cost $9.99.
For more information, press images, video demonstrations and to request your review copy please visit http://www.socialsafe.net/press

www.socialsafe.net – 15th June 2009

To help Facebook users backup their account data, new application SocialSafe has been launched to download friends and photos from a user’s Facebook account and store them safely on their computer.

At launch the SocialSafe application enables Facebook users to download their friends, photos, photos their friends have tagged them in and their profile information from the Facebook website to their computer or other device. All this for an introductory one-off price of $2.99.

According to Facebook we each have on average 120 friends and between the 200 million of us, upload over 850 million photos each month. It is incredibly easy to upload photos now without ever going near the computer.

Here is the problem. No web service is infallible, any of us could have our Facebook account hacked, deleted or simply lost. It is painful when you forget to save a file and something goes wrong. It is sickening when a hard drive fails and you frantically try to remember when you last backed up. Can you imagine what it would feel like to lose all your friends on Facebook? Can you name them all without looking? What about those photos you uploaded directly to Facebook, are they anywhere else?

SocialSafe is an incredibly simple application, built on Adobe’s Air platform, to provide a one click backup solution that works on PCs and Macs. Once activated it will save all your friends, all your photos, photos friends have tagged you in, and the personal information you’ve added to create your profile. All stored locally, all available to upload to your Facebook account again, when needed.

This is just the beginning for SocialSafe and to reflect that, the application is on sale! The first 10,000 copies will be just $2.99 for total peace of mind. According to Facebook’s statistics that’s a little over 2 cents for each of our friends!

Save your friends by downloading SocialSafe today.

www.socialsafe.net

About SocialSafe
SocialSafe is a new company on a mission to save Facebook friendships one backup at a time. SocialSafe’s first standalone application connects your Facebook account to your computer within seconds to store your photos, friends and personal information locally, creating a backup of the major elements of your Facebook profile. The application is built on Adobe Air to ensure seamless integration with PCs and Macs. After it’s introductory pricing the SocialSafe application will cost $9.99.