Say cheese! Facebook knows your smile.
Over the next few weeks, you'll notice a new feature when you're uploading photos to Facebook. It will use face detection software and show names of your friends in those photos.
It's strange, but not as creepy as it initially sounds. When Facebook recognizes your face in a friend's album, it will suggest that you be tagged, helping that friend tag photos faster.
A user can say yes to all the photos you are in at once rather than manually linking you to each photo. Makes sense if you go on a trip with a friend -- you don't have to type a name in 53 photos individually.
That way, you can pay attention to the little details of photos you post, whether it's cropping, hand-picking the ones in which friends look the best or writing captions.
If the thought of this feature makes you uneasy, Facebook will offer a way to turn it off in privacy settings. That will stop your name from being suggested when other people are tagging you.
Facebook says its users add more than 100 million photo tags a day. No wonder programmers are working to make the process less of a chore.
In October, the site launched a feature called Group Tagging, which lumps photos that look similar and lets you tag them together. The new tag suggestion takes this a step further and fills in the names for you.
Don't use the suggestions as an opportunity to be lazy. It's important to keep a watchful eye on who is tagged in your photos -- make sure there are no errors, and that it's a photo the person doesn't mind having tagged. Inconsiderate tagging can lead to sticky situations.
This is a good time to review who has permission to see photos in which you're tagged. Now that it's easier to tag, don't assume friends will be picky about which photos they post.
If you don't want a photo of you to be seen -- say, at a bachelorette party -- limiting who has access to your tagged photos isn't enough, because friends of friends in the photo can likely still see it.
That's when it's time to give up the privacy controls fight and ask the person not to post the image to Facebook. Offer to share the files to friends privately, because nothing posted to the Web is truly private.
