Facebook has rolled out new profile protection tools to ensure the safety of women online. The company says that the update has been introduced only after the feedback it received during its research with people and safety organisations in India that showed that some women choose not to upload the image of their faces anywhere on internet because they're concerned about what may happen to their photos.
Facebook says that these tools have been developed in partnership with Indian safety organisations like Centre for Social Research, Learning Links Foundation, So what exactly is this Profile Picture guard? How to activate it? Is it effective enough? We explain.
What is Facebook profile picture guard?
Facebook on Wednesday launched a new tool to check on the misuse profile picture, especially for women. Many women prefer not to upload their photos as profile pictures fearing that someone might use it for wrong reasons. The Facebook profile picture guard will keep your profile picture safe online by preventing the sharing, sending and downloading of the profile pictures.
How does the profile picture guard work?
Facebook states that the new profile picture guard will safeguard the profile picture, primarily in three ways. First it will stop other people from downloading, sharing or sending you profile picture in a message on Facebook.
Second, unknown people who you are not friends with, won't won't be able to tag anyone, including themselves, in your profile picture. Third, it will display a blue frame around your profile picture to offer a visual protection. The company says on adding the blue frame to your profile picture, you reduce the chances of copying that picture by at least 75 per cent.
Facebook also says that it will prevent others from taking a screenshot of your profile picture on Facebook wherever it is possible. The feature is currently available only on Android devices.
How to enable the profile picture guard?
Facebook has explained few methods to protect your profile picture. In the first method you will see an option to turn on profile picture guard. This option comes below your profile photo. On turning it on, your profile picture will protected with a shield symbol.
Design protection
How effective are these tools?
Please note that there is no way to hide your profile picture currently and it is always public by default. These news methods by Facebook can discourage the misuse of the profile picture but won't weed out the problem completely. For better safety, it can add options to restrict the viewing of profile pictures to just friends and friends of friends.
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