Is there a way to prevent people from tagging you in photos on Facebook?
March 12, 2019 5:00 PM Subscribe
Is there a way to prevent people from tagging you in photographs on Facebook? Or, a way that you would have to approve each photo tag individually before it is allowed? I'm not asking about whether or not the tagged photo appears on the timeline, but about tagging the photo itself.
Mod note: Couple answers removed; question's about a pretty specific use-case, not the more common one it might sound like at first.
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:36 PM on March 12, 2019
posted by cortex (staff) at 5:36 PM on March 12, 2019
Response by poster: The reason that I asked is that my own research mirrored lesser weasel's answer - that there is no way to prevent this from happening. I was hoping that I had missed something. And I think it's a serious deficiency that Facebook doesn't allow people to opt out of being tagged. Rather than requiring the tag to be removed each time it happens.
If I am missing something, please do share.
posted by andoatnp at 5:41 PM on March 12, 2019
If I am missing something, please do share.
posted by andoatnp at 5:41 PM on March 12, 2019
I think the problem is that "timeline review" is basically what links it to your account. So you get to decide what is and isn't linked to your account. But if someone wants to say this is a picture of "John Doe" and it's not linked to an account (which it isn't if timeline review is on and the tag isn't accepted) then who is anyone else to say they can't say that. After all, you may be John Doe, but you do not own that name. So you can stop people from linking to your account, but your name is words that people are allowed to use without your approval.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:43 PM on March 12, 2019
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:43 PM on March 12, 2019
Response by poster: By tagging, I mean the equivalent of a Facebook link, which would direct someone to your profile.
I think that these tag-links can exist without the photo itself showing up on the individual’s timeline.
My read on it is that you can’t prevent people from tagging you, you can only untag yourself.
But are you saying the setting prevents people from tagging you in a photo?
posted by andoatnp at 7:50 PM on March 12, 2019
I think that these tag-links can exist without the photo itself showing up on the individual’s timeline.
My read on it is that you can’t prevent people from tagging you, you can only untag yourself.
But are you saying the setting prevents people from tagging you in a photo?
posted by andoatnp at 7:50 PM on March 12, 2019
I have to say that I don't know how to do what you asked for, but I did encounter this with someone on FB.
I could locate their Facebook profile normally, and when I went back to my photo to tag them, I typed in their name, their profile came up along with their profile picture, and when I completed the tag, Facebook took a moment then returned with "Sorry you cannot do that". This was unusual, because I can normally tag other people, even strangers on FB, and they may later remove the tag themselves and if so I never tag them again.
Sorry this isn't more helpful, but just saying that this may be what you want, but I don't know how to do it myself and will be watching this thread with interest... they just mysteriously said "I have strong privacy settings on my Facebook" and didn't elaborate further... I have since gone through every FB privacy setting and not figured out what they did, and Googling didn't help me either, and as I'm not really friends with them I didn't want to press them.
posted by xdvesper at 7:51 PM on March 12, 2019
I could locate their Facebook profile normally, and when I went back to my photo to tag them, I typed in their name, their profile came up along with their profile picture, and when I completed the tag, Facebook took a moment then returned with "Sorry you cannot do that". This was unusual, because I can normally tag other people, even strangers on FB, and they may later remove the tag themselves and if so I never tag them again.
Sorry this isn't more helpful, but just saying that this may be what you want, but I don't know how to do it myself and will be watching this thread with interest... they just mysteriously said "I have strong privacy settings on my Facebook" and didn't elaborate further... I have since gone through every FB privacy setting and not figured out what they did, and Googling didn't help me either, and as I'm not really friends with them I didn't want to press them.
posted by xdvesper at 7:51 PM on March 12, 2019
I thought there was a security setting to the effect of "tagging in photos requires my approval," due to something pretty early on where party photos were getting tagged and a person's family/job could see them. The tag would not appear in the photo that everybody else within its (the photo's) visibility settings saw if not approved.
Here we go: Settings > Timeline and Tagging > Review tags...
No?
posted by rhizome at 8:12 PM on March 12, 2019
Here we go: Settings > Timeline and Tagging > Review tags...
No?
posted by rhizome at 8:12 PM on March 12, 2019
I don't know if this is still possible, but I know years ago one could deactivate their FB account each time they wanted to log out, and folks couldn't tag them in anything until they reactivated.
posted by puellaeterna at 9:39 PM on March 12, 2019
posted by puellaeterna at 9:39 PM on March 12, 2019
Here we go: Settings > Timeline and Tagging > Review tags...
No?
No.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:09 AM on March 13, 2019
No?
No.
Review posts that you're tagged in before the posts appear on your timeline?It doesn't stop the tags existing, just being highlighted to your friends.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 2:09 AM on March 13, 2019
The one below (? can't double-check right now because FB is down and the world is ending) that says "before the posts appear on Facebook" on mine.
posted by rhizome at 4:43 PM on March 13, 2019
posted by rhizome at 4:43 PM on March 13, 2019
Review tags that people add to your posts before the tags appear on Facebook?That's about other people tagging your posts. Nothing to do with people tagging their own photos/posts.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 6:03 PM on March 13, 2019
The best workaround I can think of is to turn off facial recognition and replace the first letter of your name with a non-standard glyph that resembles it so people can't easily type your name. Depends on what your real name is of course, but you should be able to find a unicode character that's close enough (here's a tool for that) - or also try a "weird" text generator and see what comes up.
I don't have a simple way of confirming this works since I'd have to do it and ask someone to try to tag me, but in theory…
posted by O9scar at 8:03 PM on March 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
I don't have a simple way of confirming this works since I'd have to do it and ask someone to try to tag me, but in theory…
posted by O9scar at 8:03 PM on March 13, 2019 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
This has been an Issue for several years going by FB Community posts, and as far as I can tell, there's no way for you to block your own name from popping up in the @[name] list. All that's available is for you to review the post and remove the tag yourself -- in addition to telling your friends directly not to do it in the first place.
posted by lesser weasel at 5:24 PM on March 12, 2019