Facebook is likely to introduce a new feature to give users peace of mind around how their profile photo can be accessed and used by others.
Today, The social network announced a pilot program in India, the program designed to protect users who are concerned about other people obtaining access to their image on their profiles. The new feature “Photo Guard” has a range of safety measures including:
(1) Preventing other Facebook users from downloading a person’s profile pic, or sharing it with others.
(2) Preventing other users from tagging other people in profile pic of a person.
(3) Preventing other users from taking screenshots of a someone other’s profile pic, initially this is for the Android app only.
When the program is activated, the optional guard is visible through a blue border and shield around profile pic of a user. The company has partnered with an Indian illustrator to make these safety controls more compelling with these designed options.
The new feature has been driven by research that the company had undertaken in India. Facebook explained In a blog post that it found that
“Some women choose not to share profile pictures that include their faces anywhere on the internet because they’re concerned about what may happen to their photos.”
It is being believed that this solution may go some way to helping, and it said that early tests indicate that people are 75 % less likely to copy a photo when the guard option has been enabled.
Initially, the rollout is happening in India, but Facebook is hoping to expand it to other countries “soon.”
