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Deleted photos can still be viewed on Facebook

If you have any embarrassing online photos that you’ve deleted, particularly on a social networking or photo sharing website then take note, it may still be lingering on their website somewhere.

According to a study from security researchers at Cambridge University, many social networking sites failed to remove photos that should have been deleted.

The study involved uploading a test image to 16 chosen sites, including Facebook, Bebo, Blogger, Flickr and MySpace.  These were then accessed a month later using the same website address of the actual image.  Out of the 16, only 7 completely removed the photos.  Others took a few hours or a few days.

It appears that photos are still live on the website’s special photo servers.  A spokesman for Facebook has come back and told the BBC that photos may continue to exist on their Content Delivery Network (CDN) even after users delete them from Facebook until they are overwritten, which usually happens after a short period of time.

It might be time to think twice then before uploading that photo involving you and the office photocopier.

Facebook along with other social networking sites have also been attacked by Muslim clerics in Indonesia, who are calling for guidelines on using such websites, as they believe it could lead them to engage in flirtatious activity or practices that could encourage extramarital affairs.  Facebook is the most visited website in Indonesia at present.