Avoid Unflattering Photo Tags on Facebook

It happens to us all: we wake up one morning after a night of fun to open up Facebook and see a set of very unflattering photos of ourselves from the night before. Spinach in the teeth, sweaty forehead dancing the tango (where was that?). This can lead to some quick-thinking damage control to 'Untag' the photo and ask the culprit to delete it from his/her account. But possibly not before your friends and coworkers see it!

Facebook is the center of the social photo universe these days - with over 10B photos, there are 60 million potentially embarrasing pics uploaded each and every week. So it's only natural that some will worry about whether last night's party will end up broadcast to their 8 gazillion friends.

There are some useful tools to deal with this pesty occurence, and they are just a simple click away using Facebook's Privacy settings.

Option 1: SMS Phone notificatoin

Facebook can notify you via text message if somebody tags you in a photo or comments on one of your photos. Here's how to activate this in just a few simple steps:

1. Click Settings-->Account Settings from the top right side of the home page on Facebook.
2. Under Account Settings, select the Notifications Tab.
3. Under the Photos section, select the Notification options you want - check the SMS box to get a text message right when somebody does the following:
4. • Tags you in a Photo
   • Comments on your Photo

Option 2: Complete Stealth Mode

Some of us just don't want to be tagged - ever. That's not a problem! In fact, if you follow this mode, the only photos tied to your profile will be those that you upload yourself!

Facebook has a setting which will prevent it from linking any pictures tagged of you to your profile. Instead, your friends will only see photos that you added yourself, when they search for pictures of you.

1. Click Settings-->Privacy Settings from the top right side of the home page on Facebook.
2. Click the Profile link
3. Under the "Photos Tagged of Me" setting, click "Edit Custom Settings"
4. This will open a small window. Under Friends, select "Only Me".
5. Select Okay.

This will put you in a so-called Stealth Mode. Because only the photos that you upload yourself, and presumably approve of, will be linked to your profile.