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

Why does this cause surprise or panic?

[Anonymous Coward]

"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."

No, it's clear that you should not use Facebook for informaiton you care about, or at all if you care about your privacy.

Re:Why does this cause surprise or panic?

[reboot246]

It's clear that you should not use Facebook for anything. Ever.

I can't really feel sorry for the ones who do lose their photos. They take photos with a crappy cell phone camera and then Facebook compresses the hell out of them. What? You didn't save them somewhere else? Tough. Even if you save them from Facebook, all you have is tiny little files that are masquerading as photos.

My bother's two daughters, both college educated, are like that. They never back up the photos from their phones. They just depend on Facebook. The photos look okay on a phone, not so much on a 24" monitor. And forget about printing them.

keep what's yours

[Lead Butthead]

the reason why you should never trust data you want to keep with a third party.

Re:keep what's yours

[dgatwood]

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

Re:keep what's yours

[Threni]

Well, when you're using a free service, anyway.

If I was in a restaurant, or getting someone to fix my car or paint my house and i wasn't giving them any money I'd set my expectations accordingly.

If you want to keep your pictures safe, just don't upload them to facebook and hope they'll keep them safe foryou forever; spend a few pennies on a usb key and keep them safe yourself forever, and/or store them on google photos.

This really isn't something which should a surprise a developmentally normal adult.

Re:keep what's yours

[TigerPlish]

Entire generations are forgetting that. It's not just the Millenials -- I'm an "X" and I find most of my friends have shunned physical media wholeheartedly. I look at them like they're crazy.

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

I was shocked about 3 years ago when I wanted to add four more "Benno" DVD shelf towers from Ikea to my existing 10. Benno is the foundation of my home cinema storage. I couldn't find them in the store, it said "order only." So I ordered, and paid a fortune in freight because there's no store pickup for special orders.

SO I got them, put them up, and now, should I want more, i'm screwed unless I buy used. But fortunately, i follow my own storage advice -- whatever you think is adequate, double it.

The point of the anecdote? Physical is dead, no matter how much we try to cling to it. And entire generations are being suckered into believing this and trusting it! Ugh!

But of course, this is what the industry wants! Want that movie? Pay for it for every view! Want that song / record? Pay for it for every listen! Or at least a subscription!

I'm starting to feel physical media was our way of holding "their" content ransom.

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 :).

Strange game.

[TigerPlish]

The only winning move is not to play.

That's OK

[theshowmecanuck]

Delete them. I won't upload photos to Facebook anymore. End of issue.

those who dont use these sites

[nimbius]

are left to wonder, is this cycle of trust, greed, and betrayal an inextricable part of the experience? Is the lennart pottering libertarian stance of "well no ones making you use it" simply how we're to approach these cabals of internet service? They do no wrong, offer a service, and we're to accept the illusion of choice?

shouldnt we, the product of sites like facebook, have more say in how the site is managed or what happens to our data? or are these sites just doomed to decline, obsolescence, and venture capital buyout without any accountability for the years of activity they had on the web vis-a-vis AOL?

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

By Delete them

[bobstreo]

they mean, remove them from your ability to access them.

  I'm guessing they're probably planning on holding onto them, and using them for pattern training, facial recognition and future blackmail..

You are the product, not the customer

[NotInHere]

For facebook, you are the product, not the customer. I don't get it why people think otherwise and then first use it and after that get upset if they get treated like a product.

Don't make a facebook account, that's it.

Re:Panic in the (facebook) city

[coastwalker]

Facebook is fine so long as you do not use it for social networking. Great for cat pictures, great for liking random products. Just do not use it for anything personal.

The Cloud s a synonym for someone else's computer

[mTor]

That's all it really is. You're basically entrusting your data with companies that have to somehow make money off you or off your data.

So don't be surprised when they pull crap like this on you.

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:What this actually means..?

[Christopher Fritz]

As I understand it, the Facebook app had a feature to synchronize photos you've taken to Facebook. This feature has been removed from the Facebook app, and put into a separate app (which probably has extra features related specifically to managing synced photos, I'm guessing). If you used the synchronization feature in the Facebook app, you need to install the Moments app to continue to use that feature. Anything synced from the Facebook app will be deleted, unless "transferred" to synchronizing from the Moments app. A feature from one app is being branched off to another app. If you want to use that feature, there's a more specific place for it now.

I've never used any of these apps, so I don't know how accurate this is. It's just what I gather from reading some articles on this.