How To Use Facebook Profile Pic Guard
Last week, Facebook announced that it was piloting new tools in India in order to prevent misuse of profile pictures. The social networking giant said that this feature was rolled out after the feedback that they received from users in India. There have been cases where cyber criminals or trolls steal the profile pictures of people and misuse it by creating fake profiles.
The new feature enables users by deciding and control who can download and share their profile pictures.
AaratiSoman, the Facebook Product Manager, announced the new Photo Guard tool which has been named as Profile Picture Guard. She said:
“Based on preliminary tests, we’ve learned that when someone adds an extra design layer to their profile picture, other people are at least 75 percent less likely to copy that picture!”
Soman said that Facebook was also introducing designs to profile pictures which according to a research done by the company, appeared helpful in deterring misuse. The feature is expected to rollout to users in more countries in near future. Being the second largest user-base of Facebook, India will get an exclusive experience of this feature.
Facebook is offering a step-by-step guide to add an optional profile picture guard to Indian users. Once applied, the profile photo can no longer be downloaded, shared, or sent in a message on Facebook.
People who are not friends on Facebook would not be able to tag anyone, including themselves, in somebody’s profile picture. Facebook has said that Profile Picture Guard will prevent others from taking a screenshot of a profile picture on Facebook where possible. At the moment, this feature is available only on Android devices.
The new Photo Guard adds a blue border and shield around the profile pictures as a visual cue of protection.
This feature is being slowly rolled out in India. Following is the procedure to activate the guard:
User should refresh his/her News Feed. The message about turning on the Profile Picture Guard might appear.
- User should tap Turn On Profile Picture Guard
- A screen explaining the benefits of the Profile Picture Guard will appear.
- Click Next
- Current profile photo will appear, complete with the shield symbol, with the option to Save.
A second method is as follows:
- User should open his/her Facebook profile.
- Tap on profile photo
- User will see the option to Turn on profile picture guard
- If selected, user will get the option to Save, and shield symbol will appear on the profile photo
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