Are photos you delete from social networking sites *really* deleted?

It really seems to depend. Both Myspace and Facebook seem to cache photos quite a lot longer than people expect them to. Ars Technica has a post about this.

With any social networking site, it is a good idea to think twice before posting photos. While YOU might think it’s a great photo/it’s edgy/it’s showing you’re ‘random’/you look hot, keep in mind that others might see it differently. Another area of concern is that you have absolutely no idea who is going to see the photo, and once a photo is on the internet, it might never go away. There is very little that you can do to prevent other Internet surfers from grabbing your images and storing them on their hard drives. I have had photos of me that I didn’t even know existed pop up years after they were taken.

Be careful. You never know where that photo of you with the Cheez Whiz on your face will wind up.

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Tags: safety