Facebook Threatens To Delete Users' Photos If They Don't Install Moments app (betanews.com)

Mark Wilson, reporting for BetaNews: Not content with forcing people into using its Messenger app, Facebook is continuing its aggressive tactics and driving users to install its photo-sharing app, Moments. The social network has warned users that their photos face deletion if they fail to use the Moments app. Unsurprisingly, this has led to a huge surge in interest in the app, pushing it to the top of the download charts. Facebook says it is going to delete Synced Albums and Synced Photos if Moments is not installed by July 7, sending warning emails to a number of users. This has understandably led to panic installations of Moments as people sought to protect the photos that have been automatically synchronized from their phone. It's important to note that it is only these synced photos that are at risk, but it's clear that there is an element of confusion about what Facebook is planning to delete.

Comments

Re:keep what's yours

[dgatwood]

This. If it isn't under your direct control, it isn't really yours.

Finally a way to delete your account?

[mattwarden]

Perhaps with enough threats like this my "deactivated" account will one day actually be deleted like I would prefer

What this actually means..?

[bug_hunter]

So can someone explain if the following is true as it's my understanding:

* Facebook can be configured to automatically sync photos from your mobile device.
* That makes it super quick to share a photo. (and probably gives Facebook access to all your photos without user intervention)
* Now Facebook will discard the server side copy of photos that you never shared or put into an album unless you install moments?

Sorry if I've got my facts wrong, though it's so hard to work out the actual facts when 99% of discussion is Facebook bashing rather than fact discussing.
(No fan of Facebook policies here myself, just annoyed at how hard it is to work out what's going on outside of "Facebook = evil")

Re:keep what's yours

[Ol Olsoc]

They're wrong. It's a free service because it costs no money. It's a simple as that. Even things which cost you money can result in you losing privacy; nearly always you'll lose more, in fact, because you end up paying via methods which reveal information about you, so that cost - if you want to look at it as a cost - is decreased too when it's free.

So, those hard drives I bought, are telling the world more about me than if I posted every pic on Facebook? Explain, because I gave them my credit card and get email from the place I bought them from. If I was stupid enough to use FB I'm giving out less info?

People can say stuff's not free because, for example, Facebook have your photos, or they can sell or use your browsing habits (in a very limited sense), it doesn't impinge on your freedom in any observable way.

These idiots seem to have a little less freedom after sharing on Facebook: http://mashable.com/2012/12/12...

I mean, people are free to claim that wifi gives you cancer or whatever but they're just that; baseless, stupid claims.

Go get a script blocker. Enable it 100 percent. Now start enabling scripts. A whole lot of them are facebook and they are tracking you even if you don't "belong". You'll have to look them up, because unlike Google, Facebook obfuscates where they are sending your info.

Despite your lofty claims of superiority, you kind sir, are doing a fine imitation of baseless stupidity. Or does Facebook have paid shills here now, because you ar either purposely dissembling, challenged, or paid to distribute the inaccurate info.

And other people repeat it just because they don't like facebook because they don't have friends or because it's not cool or whatever. Good for them, I saw. Go grow a stupid hipster beard or something.

You mad bro? Hey, some of us spout it becuse we did the research. And have determined that people like you are spreading BS. I've got friends outside of FB. I see them in person every day. As for "cool", The FaceBook crowd would be on AOL in another era. But they are tracking the bejabbers out of most of us. And in Corporate America, nothing is done without pecuniary purpose.

Re:keep what's yours

[ultranova]

Streaming and cloud offer no permanence unless one can store local copies of equal quality.

But content isn't scarce anymore, so what's the point of permanence?

Want that movie? Pay for it for every view! Want that song / record? Pay for it for every listen!

How many movies are worth watching more than - or even - once? Go to a theater if you want to see big-budget special effects. For everything else, there's Youtube and endless amounts of user-generated content. And the same goes for music.

Not worrying about permanence or control is perfectly rational when the Internet makes content like the air we breath: always there, just inhale when you need it and don't worry about it otherwise. Yes, some gulps of air smell sweeter than others, but there will be others just as sweet, so why try to cling to them? It's us old farts who carefully store pressurized containers because we're haunted by our memories of pre-photosynthesis days who are the irrational ones :).