Facebook Blocks KDE Photo App, Deletes Users' Pics

Znarl writes with a report from Joe Brockmeier, who writes that: "KDE users have gotten a rather unpleasant surprise from Facebook: Not only is the site blocking KDE apps like Gwenview from uploading, the social media giant has also taken down photos uploaded with the KDE plugins. Yet another reason that users might think twice before depending on Facebook for photo storage."

Comments

Re:Does this COMPLETELY delete them?

[TheCyberShadow]

Found it.

Note that no content has been deleted - if your application is re-enabled, all the content comes back.

You're at their mercy

[sqrt(2)]

Facebook gets to decide how and when you use their site. The best solution is to use something else if you want to access and store your files on your terms. I use Facebook, but I treat it as a secondary system for whatever feature they have. Do not rely on anything related to Facebook as your primary method to do something like store photos, IM, E-mail, etc. The files were deleted to send a message, that you have to use their implementation of a feature if you want to use it at all.

Probably the worst example of Facebook's policy abuses is the censorship. Try making a status update linking to a site critical of Facebook's policies, or about blocking ads on Facebook, link to Firefox and Ad Block Plus. See how long it takes for your status to disappear. Or if it doesn't, ask your friends if they can see it, you might find that it has been made invisible to everyone but you.

Re:Scaled down photos

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the download link does not give the original. It gives at max a 2048x2048 image. Even if you upload an image within those dimensions, it still gets recompressed.

Facebook is not a place to store photos at all.

distributing the private API key

[oever]

Each application on facebook get's a private API. In FOSS, this key is present in the source code. That is not permissible according to facebook terms of service. In effect, they are blocking FOSS software. An alternative is to use a different key for each user.

More info: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=276609

Re:Does this COMPLETELY delete them?

[cronius]

http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

From the link above:

If you do not think you will use Facebook again and would like your account deleted, we can take care of this for you. Keep in mind that you will not be able to reactivate your account or retrieve any of the content or information you have added. If you would like your account deleted, then click "Submit."