Google/Facebook

[andie_303]

Hi All

 

I'm wondering if I can get some advice.

 

I have a facebook profile that contains pictures of myself and my son - I am very careful about the privacy of these pictures however I have found that one is available on Google images.

 

My facebook settings are that only my friends can view my profile and pictures and I have not selected the option that allows Facebook to set up a profile in a seach engine pointing the searcher to facebook.

 

I cannot find why this picture is available and cannot seem to get it taken down.

 

I have removed the picture from my facebook profile yet it still remains.

 

I have contacted both facebook and google in an effort to have the picture removed and both have not complied nor contacted me in return.

 

Are the breaching my privacy as I have not consented to this being displayed and is there anyway I can get this down.

 

Would I have a case to bring legal action against them therefore giving them a nudge to remove with offical paperwork??

 

Thanks All

[rebel11]

andie 303,

 

I might be talking rubbish, but have you emptied history and deleted cookies, then have a look. I'm no expert. Becareful when deleting cookies.

[andie_303]

thanks folr the advice Rebel.

 

I just did a google search from my work PC - which I cannot access facebook from (not blocked CAG yet so I still spend way too much of my time not working!) and the picture is available on there.

 

If I search my name and the web nothing comes up - no reference to facebook etc it is only on image searches??

[rebel11]

Just some bit's and pieces worth trying:-

 

untag the photos, there's the remove tag option right under the pic, next to your name, click on that and the picture will be removed from your profile only

 

You can't see ''remove tag'' on your pictures ? When you remove tag, your picture automatically disappear of your account. If you want to remove a profile picture, than, click on the pic you want to delete, and after click on ''Delete this picture'' .. it works for me, so..

If u want to delete a picture you click on 'edit picture(s)' then u find the picture u wanna delete than u select delete this picture or whatever it says. then u click save changes!

[Tezcatlipoca]

Ok, firstly you stand almost no chance of bringing any sort of legal action. I'm going to make this quite plain: The Internet Is An Open Public Resource.

 

Anything, and I do mean anything, you put into it - music, images, text - you should have no illusions of privacy over, regardless of how safe you think your data might or should be. Basically, if you don't want private data on the internet, don't put it in.

 

Note that is not the case with entering data such as credit card or password information into secured sites, such as your bank; but for everything casual - such as images - you should expect it to become publically available by one method or another.

 

With regards to your current issue, the first thing to do is to establish exactly where the image is being stored.

If you Google your image, you should be able to left click it from the search results to be taken to main page where it is located (but not necessarilly where it is being stored). That may give you some clues as to how it came to be available.

 

I'm going to automatically assume you're an Internet Explorer user, so you can also right-click an image and select Properties to get some basic data. Part of that data is a listing of Address (URL). This is the website that is currently holding the image and serving it up to webpages such as Google.

If you have the good sense to be using FireFox, you can again right-click an image and select Properties. FireFox will list the data under the tag Location:.

Either way, once you know where the image is being stored, you may be able to take further steps in getting rid of it.

 

Beyond that, the best you can really do if ensure that all copies of the image you posted up and are removed. If the image has been cached by an external server, it will eventually clear out

Edited November 12, 2009 by Tezcatlipoca

[andie_303]

Thanks Tez - the issue is that the image has been deleted from the only place that had it i.e. my facebook page and has been deleted for over a month.

 

If I click on the image in google it gives me an error page telling me the link does not work.

 

Therefore I can only assume this is somehow stored on google and contacting them to remove it is getting me no response.

 

Surely if I have alerted them that this is in a program that belongs to them and I want it removed they have a duty to do so. If they don't how can they not be liable - especially when google have had no permission to have this anyway.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Have you tried right-clicking the image and checking its location, as I suggest? This will tell you where the actual image is being held.

 

However, since you get an error if you click it, it sounds as though the image was cached by one of Google's servers. Since the original(s) to the best of your knowledge have been removed, it will only be a matter of time before that cached gets removed naturally.

 

As to Google's duty to remove it, they have none. You could try complaining, but I can't see it will get you anywhere to be honest.

 

By way of a quick explaination as to what has probably happened (I can't be sure without looking at it directly myself): Search engines, including Google, use spiders to search the internet. Spiders are basically just little automated programs that trawl the web, jumping from link to link and taking a snapshot of everything they find then passing it back to the search engine. The actual process is a hell of a lot more complicated than this, but in basic terms spiders are how search engines work, and know what to list.

Now, when you are web-developing, it is a simple task to add a few lines of code that tell Google, and other search engine spiders, not to remember (cache) that page, so you can selectively ensure what - if any - of your site's content appears in Google searches. However, most websites don't do this, precisely because they want to appear in search engine results in order to publicise their site.

It appears as though Google's automated spiders have trawled over a website and cached your image from it as part of their normal behaviour. The fact the site in question clearly didn't contain any code telling them they couldn't is not Google's problem.

 

The fact you've taken the image(s) down and the Google image link is now broken suggests pretty conclusively that FB is the original source. Again, you could try complaining to FB, but you're unlikely to get anywhere. The image is already cached with Google now, so any action FB took would rather be closing the stable door after the spider has bolted.

 

I'm afraid that it sounds very much like you're simply going to have to put up with this and learn from the experience. That's not ideal, and I really am sorry you've had to experience an unpleasent element of the Internet's open nature, but that's the reality of your situation. Again, with the exception of secured websites (which start https in the address bar, rather than just http), you should never assume that anything you put into the internet in private. It is possible to try and make things exclusive by a variety of methods, but ultimately the best defense is simply not to put data up in the first place.

Edited November 13, 2009 by Tezcatlipoca

[borisbeaver]

You may find that the image is stored in Google's search cache. This may drop off in time. It will only stay there if it is referenced by someone searching.

[andie_303]

Thanks again Tez,

 

I finally got a response from Facebook this morning that admits my account settings were such that this should not appear on google - however they say it is Googles fault and as they have the image basically google are responsible for taking it down.

 

Hmmmm the words pillar and post spring to mind!

[Tezcatlipoca]

Thanks again Tez,

 

I finally got a response from Facebook this morning that admits my account settings were such that this should not appear on google - however they say it is Googles fault and as they have the image basically google are responsible for taking it down.

 

Hmmmm the words pillar and post spring to mind!

 

Pillar and post indeed. Basically, FB will pass the buck by saying your account shouldn't have allowed any data to be leaked to Google's spiders, Google will say - quite correctly in my opinion - that their automated spiders just trawl around and collect what websites allow them to take.

 

I still don't think you're likely to get any form of redress, but in my view the responsibility is with FB, not Google. It was FB's site, by their own admission, that shouldn't serve up data to Google's spiders, it was FB's site that did. Think of it like handing over your valuables to a safety deposit box in a bank. One day the bank happens to leave its doors open and your valuables get taken. You compalin, only to be told by the bank that whilst their dors should have been closed, its the thieves' fault because they took your stuff.

 

With regards to the cached copy, it will sit on Google's servers until it naturally drops off through lack of access. Calling that image, or linking to it, will ensure that drop off takes a lot longer, since Google assumes the image is needed.

 

You could try going back to FB, but I suspect they'll just continue to say it's Google's fault.

[andie_303]

Thanks Tez,

 

I have completed a urgent removal form on googles privacy page today and will see what happens from that.

 

I have also responded to facebook asking them to investigate how when they agree my account settings should not have allowed this to be displayed it has been.

 

I have asked them to provide a written explantion of how this has come about.

 

So I wait........

[andie_303]

The thing is whilst I do mind my image being accessible through Google what makes it worse is that because I have a very unusual name - I am not even buried on page 100 out of 139780 it is image 1 page 1!

[andie_303]

yay the image has gone! I completed the urgent link removal on googles privacy statement page and it has now gone.

 

Still waiting for an explanation from facebook about how it got there in the first place.

[ashmk]

Dont hold your breath.

[Motorphetamine]

yay the image has gone! I completed the urgent link removal on googles privacy statement page and it has now gone.

 

Still waiting for an explanation from facebook about how it got there in the first place.

 

You might not be likely to get one. Unless things have drasitcly changed recently, the picture becomes property of Facebook when you upload it, so they can do anything they want with it.

[Tezcatlipoca]

You might not be likely to get one. Unless things have drasitcly changed recently, the picture becomes property of Facebook when you upload it, so they can do anything they want with it.

 

Indeed, which is why I repeat my earlier post that, almost without exception, you should have no illusions of privacy or copyright when uploading text, music, photos or any kind of data to the internet.

 

The internet is one giant repository of data, freely navigable and available to all, and you can't apply the same expectation of redress that you have against companies in the real world, precisely because virtual organisations aren't bound by the same rules.

 

You might not think that's fair, but that's just the way it is.