Facebook users like myself have been bombarded recently with a slew of new spam-like photo collage applications that are spreading like wildfire. Examples of these types of annoying Facebook applications include the Friend.ly image collage app, the Hotties For Sale! Facebook app, and the photo tag spamming Friend of the Day! application. These types of applications are pretty simple as they merely display friends in a grid format tagged with your friends’ names. The genius behind these applications is the undeniable viral power they possess.
When you tag your friend’s photo on Facebook that photo is added to their profile automatically so they can see it. Applications like Friend.ly and Hotties For Sale! take advantage of this opportunity to put their apps in front of every person that’s tagged in the photo collage and therefore avoiding the need for the user to actually add the application in order to see it. If you consider that the photo collages produced by these applications contain twenty or more tagged images, every person who’s tagged will see it without giving the application any permission whatsoever. While you can’t remove your own profile image from the grid based photo collage, you can remove your name from the image by removing the tag located directly beneath the image. That may not seem like a much but it puts the ownership of the photo back into your hands in the sense that it’s only discoverable under your name if you allow the tag to remain.
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Every day another one of these photo collages appears in my profile’s photo album. I keep removing the tag but there’s no easy way to permanently remove it. You can’t simply “Hide” photos on your profile like you can for the occasionally obnoxious friend in your profile’s feed. So what is a Facebook user left to do? Well, you actually have a couple of options to combat this annoying problem.
How To Stop Facebook Apps From Tag Spamming You:
1. Report the photo – Go to the photo in question, click on the “Report This Photo” link in the lower right hand corner, and report it as “Advertisement/Spam”.
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2. Remove the application – Hopefully you haven’t added such a spammy application in the first place but if you were unfortunately duped into adding it’s easily removable. Just go to your Application Settings and click on the X next to the application in question.
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3. Write a review – Go to the app’s page and look for the “Reviews” tab at the top of the page. If it’s missing you can still review the application if it’s installed on your profile. All you need to do is navigate to your Application Settings and click on the X next to the application in question. Usually a pop up window will appear where you can assign a star rating and leave a review prior to removing it. Writing a poor but honest review of the application can be very helpful not only to other Facebook users but it helps spread awareness of such problematic apps to Facebook administrators.
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4. Block the application – Go to the app page in question and click on “Block Application” in the upper left hand column of the page.
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5. Report the application – Go to the app page in question and click on “Report Application” in the lower left hand column of the page.
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6. Change your profile’s privacy settings – Go to your profile privacy settings on Facebook and assign viewing rights from the “Photos Tagged of You” parameter. This won’t prevent people from sharing or tagging your photo but it lets you control who can view the list of photos of you that you or your friends have tagged. If you want to restrict viewing of your photos to only specific individuals, friend lists, or networks associated with your profile you need to select “Customize” from the menu.
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Your actions alone may not totally prevent the abusive application from rearing its ugly head again but they do have an effect if everyone participates. So after you’ve followed the steps above, please share this information with your friends on Facebook to help take these spammy, virus-like photo applications off Facebook once and for all!
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