And who would have the direct URL?

We call this a "Tempest in a Teapot" where I come from. Worrying about something that would never happen

Got any samples?

You know, for research purposes?

Facebook says that they're moved to a new system that will fully delete them in 45 days. I'm completely ignorant on the subject so can somebody explain why content can't be deleted immediately? Seems strange to me.

What's a wayback machine?

maliklockett: And who would have the direct URL?

We call this a "Tempest in a Teapot" where I come from. Worrying about something that would never happen

Yep, came here to say this. Who in the hell would have the direct URL to that embarassing photo from 2 years ago. And frankly, if they cared about the photo that much, chances are they probably saved it to their computer anyways.

/Has not had any embarassing photo's on Facebook
//Not yet, anyway

Goatse never sleeps

mitchcumstein1: I thank god every day there was no Facebook and easily available digital cameras when I was in school.

Holy jebus, me too.

9beers: Facebook says that they're moved to a new system that will fully delete them in 45 days. I'm completely ignorant on the subject so can somebody explain why content can't be deleted immediately? Seems strange to me.

Original article (new window). They just said it's on some old system they haven't bothered to fix.

9beers: Facebook says that they're moved to a new system that will fully delete them in 45 days. I'm completely ignorant on the subject so can somebody explain why content can't be deleted immediately? Seems strange to me.

Probably because they have a huge and labrynthe IT structure that isn't designed to delete photos, but rather to upload and serve them out as fast as possible.

9beers: Facebook says that they're moved to a new system that will fully delete them in 45 days. I'm completely ignorant on the subject so can somebody explain why content can't be deleted immediately? Seems strange to me.

45 days is a long enough period of time that most people will forget about this and they don't have to bother deleting the pictures.

As bad as their code was at handling the upload of a batch of photos in one shot just a couple years ago, I'm not surprised making sure deep deletion erased everything wasn't a priority for them.

Same with Flickr. I stopped paying for an account many years ago, so I can only view my last 200 photos, but I can go back even further with a direct URL.

The sound of one hand clapping: maliklockett: And who would have the direct URL?

We call this a "Tempest in a Teapot" where I come from. Worrying about something that would never happen

Yep, came here to say this. Who in the hell would have the direct URL to that embarassing photo from 2 years ago. And frankly, if they cared about the photo that much, chances are they probably saved it to their computer anyways.

/Has not had any embarassing photo's on Facebook
//Not yet, anyway

Ditto.

People cross reference only when you do something stupid, ie newsworthy. Get arrested in a funny way, become a murderer, celebrity whore, or a politician. And even then having a good lock down on privacy only shows you're on there.

Like getting caught for petty crime, this is only a problem for the tards out there.

It's highly unlikely that some valedictorian has pictures of his boozehounding on facebook, while proclaiming to everyone else his intention to run for president one day in 40 years. Maybe someone is that nuts, and someone is nuts enough to bookmark his photos. I don't think it's happened yet though.

This thread is useless without direct links to the better of these pics.

Subby, this story already went green on Monday. You don't even need a direct URL to it since you can still access it if you scroll down the Geek page. But here's the direct link just in case. Fark Thread #6924950 (new window)

Mobutu: This thread is useless without direct links to the better of these pics.

Only reason I'm here, anyway.

I can wait...

Oh, man, those were some good days at university when I could look people up at see women half-naked on a regular basis...and then go sit beside them in class.

MoronLessOff: What's a wayback machine?

It's the kiddie ride version of the Time Masheen.


/not as popular

whizbangthedirtfarmer: Oh, man, those were some good days at university when I could look people up at see women half-naked on a regular basis...and then go sit beside them in class.

You can still do that if you have one of those Sony camcorders with night vision.

A thought just occured to me. Now, bear in mind that I have no understanding of the ways large companies manage their data so the following may be incredibly stupid.

I'm guessing that it costs Facebook a certain amount of money to host the photo's. I know that the avearage Facebook photo's have tiny file sizes but even still, thousands upon thousands mount up to a fair amount. Now, surely it would be in Facebooks best interest to fully delete any unwanted photo's from their servers? Otherwise they are just paying to store information that no-one wants. Isn't that like paying for a storage unit and filling it with broken televisions? They have no value to anyone but you are still paying to keep them.

Am I wrong or is this not something that companies are loosing money on?

PsyLord: whizbangthedirtfarmer: Oh, man, those were some good days at university when I could look people up at see women half-naked on a regular basis...and then go sit beside them in class.

You can still do that if you have one of those Sony camcorders with night vision.

With the advent of yoga pants, my imagination if fulfilled in all other ways now.

Pro Tip: Facebook doesn't delete anything. Their business is knowing everything about you so they can sell that to their customers, of which you aren't one.

Pontious Pilates: mitchcumstein1: I thank god every day there was no Facebook and easily available digital cameras when I was in school.

Holy jebus, me too.

Ditto.

The sound of one hand clapping: A thought just occured to me. Now, bear in mind that I have no understanding of the ways large companies manage their data so the following may be incredibly stupid.

I'm guessing that it costs Facebook a certain amount of money to host the photo's. I know that the avearage Facebook photo's have tiny file sizes but even still, thousands upon thousands mount up to a fair amount. Now, surely it would be in Facebooks best interest to fully delete any unwanted photo's from their servers? Otherwise they are just paying to store information that no-one wants. Isn't that like paying for a storage unit and filling it with broken televisions? They have no value to anyone but you are still paying to keep them.

Am I wrong or is this not something that companies are loosing money on?

Storage is incredibly cheap these days, especially if it doesn't have to be particularly robust. It might be costing them money but not very much.

Kuroshin: The sound of one hand clapping: maliklockett: And who would have the direct URL?

We call this a "Tempest in a Teapot" where I come from. Worrying about something that would never happen

Yep, came here to say this. Who in the hell would have the direct URL to that embarassing photo from 2 years ago. And frankly, if they cared about the photo that much, chances are they probably saved it to their computer anyways.

/Has not had any embarassing photo's on Facebook
//Not yet, anyway

The fact that a direct link still exists means that the image can still be found without knowing what that direct link address is.

It may not be searchable in Google, but anybody with a bit of savvy and time on their hands can scrape up every "deleted" pic out there.

I would be less worried about someone trying to scrape up "deleted" pictures and more worried about someone who saw the picture while it was up and downloaded it to their hard drive. Cause that person knows who you are and can redistribute the picture at will. Somehow gathering up these "deleted" photos with no context or attribution to your account is nothing compared to a malicious Ex posting your "Sexting" photos to the whole world.

People have to learn that when dealing with digital media, it is IMPOSSIBLE to control where it goes. It does not matter what privacy or security you put around it, you WILL lose control of it eventually.

So, instead of blaming Facebook for not deleting those embarrasing photos, how about you don't take them in the first place?

I was under the impression that the only way to delete your content is actually deactivate your account.

Came for the embarrasing facebook links...leaves disappointed.

9beers: Facebook says that they're moved to a new system that will fully delete them in 45 days. I'm completely ignorant on the subject so can somebody explain why content can't be deleted immediately? Seems strange to me.

It takes time for the computer to electronically digest the information. The 45 days is only a worst care scenario. Exactly how long it takes depends on the file. The computer can digest pictures of things like bran muffins and trees in a matter of hours. Other food takes longer, and you have to wait weeks for picture of inedible things.

Back in '02, I had a friend who decided to store some vacation pictures on his brand new Dell and then deleted a bunch of extra pictures of the Rocky Mountains. I kid you not, took the poor thing almost 18 months to delete those 30-ish photographs.

maliklockett : And who would have the direct URL?

google

// gis for "disneyland" site:facebook.com (feel free to change "disneyland" to something more interesting

Welcome to the intarwebz!

I used to work for http://mbuzzy.com and they did something very similar.

When you actually go in and attempt to delete a photo, all that happens, is the boolean in the db is changed to either display, or not display the photo to the public on their profile.

The reason for this? Aiding law enforcement in catching criminal behavior. If someone says "he had a picture of the 14yo that he was diddling on his facebook page", law enforcement can contact FB and subpoena all of his history.

I "deleted" a bunch of photos and then decided I wanted to return some of them to Facebook.

When I uploaded the same photos again they reappeared with the comments they'd originally had.

Spooky.

PunchDrunkPanda: I was under the impression that the only way to delete your content is actually deactivate your account.

I made a FB account a while back, had it up for maybe 2 weeks, then went and deactivated it. The last page I saw was a message saying "if you ever want your account back, simply log back into the account with the same username/pw and you'll have everything back". It's all still there, somewhere.

Scruffinator: PunchDrunkPanda: I was under the impression that the only way to delete your content is actually deactivate your account.

I made a FB account a while back, had it up for maybe 2 weeks, then went and deactivated it. The last page I saw was a message saying "if you ever want your account back, simply log back into the account with the same username/pw and you'll have everything back". It's all still there, somewhere.

Yep. I think I had stopped using Facebook several years back when I embarked on my job search. About three or four years later, I simply signed in and got a confirmation e-mail. Everything was still there as I left it.

Rent Party: Pro Tip: Facebook doesn't delete anything. Their business is knowing everything about you so they can sell that to their customers, of which you aren't one.

If someone is stalking you to the point of archiving URL links of your photos on FB, i think you're problems are a bit more severe than just having a few photos floating about in cyberspace.

That's why no matter how hard Fark censors try, Rainbow Brite girl lives on forever in our hearts.

Tech News Today had a letter from someone who worked on the same technology stack. He blamed the problem on MySQL not being able to delete a row without locking the entire table. Considering the vast number of users, that would block a lot of users.

However, you would think they could create a batch job to run during slow periods (if such a thing exists on a global platform) that would handle the deletes.

Genju: That's why no matter how hard Fark censors try, Rainbow Brite girl lives on forever in our hearts.

And what'shisnames step-sister.

StandsWithAFist: Rent Party: Pro Tip: Facebook doesn't delete anything. Their business is knowing everything about you so they can sell that to their customers, of which you aren't one.

[i41.tinypic.com image 144x216]

Yep.

Facebook users aren't consumers, they are product. Carefully fed and watered... even let Zynga milk them for byproduct cash, but make no mistake. We are the sheep.

/off to FB to play Words with Friends

I do less and less on facebook. When they force this "timeline" thing on everybody, I'll be done with it. One thing that's clear to me is that they store everything, forever, and they plan to use it to make money, one way or another. They probably haven't yet thought of some of the ways that they will do it. And we probably won't like it.

So I give them as little as possible to target me.

cig-mkr: CharlieBrown: Came for the embarrasing facebook links...leaves disappointed.

OK, here's a pic for you
[2.bp.blogspot.com image 400x313]

I hate you.

Mobutu: This thread is useless without direct links to the better of these pics.

Like so? (new window)