It turns out that the majority of users are misusing the photograph reporting tool, and they’re flagging up pictures as being offensive for a rather different reason than Facebook intended – because they just don’t like the way they look.

Facebook have stated that they’ll continue to remove any photographs that are genuinely offensive, but with 250 million pictures added every day, they have neither the time or the inclination to take down snaps because users don’t like the angle, lighting or size of their nose.

And in order to save time on sorting legitimate complaints from aesthetic moans, the social network has added a new option when it comes to reporting photographs, as explained by engineering director Arturo Bejar:

So we made it such that when you hit report, we ask you if you’re in the photo. And then we ask you if the photo is unflattering or if you don’t like how you show up in it or whether you find it harassing or bullying you. And most people say, you know, I don’t like how I look in this photo.

Antonio Bejar

If you’re confronted with photographs that make you look like a drunken mess with poor dress sense, then you’re probably best off just asking the friend who posted it to take it down. Unless you want Facebook’s security department laughing at the bags under your eyes…

In other Facebook news, volunteers helping out at this year’s Olympics are banned from detailing their work on social media sites – especially when it comes to mentioning where “athletes, celebrities and dignitaries” are.

This does seem a bit like overkill, given that half the planet is fairly certain that Usain Bolt can be found on the Athletics track for the Men’s 100m final on 5 August.  Whoops. The secret’s out!

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Amazing news has broken, that is in no way connected to the FirstFound Christmas Party on Friday night. It turns out that a staggering 76% of photographs added to Facebook by Britons contain at least one person under the influence of alcohol.

A survey of 1,781 British people aged 18 or over revealed this not-so-surprising statistic, when users were asked a number of questions including just how many of their photographs were of them or friends after a tipple or two. Funnily enough, a correlation was discovered between how much alcohol we drink, and how willing we are to pose for photographs that will end up on the internet.

We’re not too happy the morning after either, because over 93% of us have had to delete compromising snaps taken after a few shandies, just because of the embarrassment factor. And, it gets worse for 8% of us, who claim that somewhere in Facebook’s dark and dingy archives, there are photographs lurking that could get the subjects into what they ominously describe as “serious trouble” at work…

But like any hardened drinker, a spokesperson for the company carrying out the survey has managed to come up with a plausible excuse for our intoxicated behaviour:

“The thing to remember is that most photos are taken on special occasions or get-togethers with friends and family.”

Rebecca Huggler – MyMemory.com

Well, that’s alright then.

All of this means we should be stepping up our photo security, especially as 25% of users let anyone and everyone take a sneak peek at their photographs. Which just shows that people tend not to make the best decisions when they’re six sheets to the wind.

It’s not yet been confirmed whether the remaining 24% of photographs are mostly of people’s cats and kids, but our Facebook news feeds would suggest that this is probably the case.

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It’s a thought so terrifying that you could be forgiven for thinking it’s just another Halloween prank.

But despite what the papers will say, this development looks like being less of a trick for homeowners, and more of a treat for businesses.

Instead of sticking a camera into your front room while you’re looking the other way, this new scheme is on a volunteer-only basis, and is aimed at business.

Starting out in London, Paris and a number of US cities, Google will be dispatching professional photographers to gyms, hotels and shops who’ve signed up, in order to provide searchers with high quality photographs showing just what these businesses are like inside.

And far from insisting that everyone joins up, Google has already said it won’t be photographing huge chain stores (because we all know what a Tesco looks like), lawyers offices or hospitals.

But if this commitment to the privacy of hospital patients seems out of character for Google, you won’t be surprised to hear that once the search engine has pictures of your business, there’s no reason for them to ever give them back.

So there’s the trade-off – extra publicity on Google Local, balanced against Google having full access to pictures of your hotel’s front desk.

We’ll be interested to see just how many people volunteer to sign up…

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As we’ve noted before, anything Google can do, Microsoft can do to a slightly lesser standard a few years later.

Not content with accusations that Bing is stealing from the Google algorithm, Microsoft have decided to unveil a brand new, never-before-seen addition to their maps functionality.

Only joking – they’re launching their own version of not-controversial-in-the-slightest service Google Streetview in Europe.In addition to the 56 US cities they’ve already mapped, Microsoft Streetside will start filming major cities around Europe next month – with mapping already underway in London.

According to Microsoft’s director of search Dave Coplin, they’re planning to combine Streetside with location-based services in a manner that in no way resembles Google Maps, Google Places or Google Hotpot.

The FirstFound Blog can’t help but wonder if innovation would serve Microsoft better than replication.

The EU care deeply about your privacy. That’s why they’re banning browser cookies, pursuing Google through the courts and causing Facebook users to panic.

But today they’re taking the quest for privacy throughout Europe to a new level.

EU Commissioner for Respecting All Privacy René François Artois today announced that it’s not just the internet that needs to stop watching you so closely.

Many people have complained about Google Streetview, browser cookies and the Facebook allowing stalkers, burglars and unscrupulous marketing types to follow you around in the streets, steal your treasured belongings and sell you products that you might want or need. But in our opinion, merely banning most of the internet is not going far enough.

We are introducing a new clause which will allow concerned individuals to opt out from all manner of surveillance in a new scheme which will be rolled out in Gent at 12 noon on Avril Un.

The new clause, which has received rapturous backing from the Daily Express, Daily Mail and Small Village Alliance will allow people to have their faces blurred when they’re picked up on CCTV, or by television cameras at public events.

After a trial in the Low Countries, the EU Commission for Respecting All Privacy is planning to introduce the scheme throughout Europe by the end of 2012, much to the delight of special interest groups across the UK. You’ll be able to contact your local MEP to find out how to blur your face when it is recorded in the following ways:

• If you’re caught on CCTV
• If you’re in the crowd at a televised sporting event
• If you walk behind a newscaster during a live or pre-recorded broadcast
• If tourists photographing a landmark record an image of your face

Coventry Neighbourhood Watch Campaigner Mary Bale has been particularly vociferous in her support of the scheme:

It’s about time that honest, hard-working individuals could go about their daily business without the tyranny of CCTV and news cameras. We’re at a point where a joke picked up by CCTV can wind up with your face plastered across the newspapers. And that’s hardly private, is it?

The technology to blur faces will be provided by Google, as a way of making up for Eric Schmidt’s ill-received joke about opting out of Streetview by moving home. Until this is finalised, privacy-conscious citizens are advised to shake their heads rapidly from side to side to create their own blurring effect.

The FirstFound Blog team don’t expect this latest ruling to affect online businesses, unlike the upcoming cookies legislation, but we will be keeping abreast of the situation.

For the latest developments on this and any other EU initiatives, follow FirstFound on Facebook and Twitter.

(Written by Andrew Nattan, original research and English > French translation by Andrew Dutson)

Given that it’s managed to upset luddites across the length and breadth of six continents, you may imagine that Google’s Streetview car is now enjoying a hard-earned retirement on some sunny parking lot in silicon valley.

You’d be wrong.

As part of thier never-ending quest to capture every single piece of information available, Google have decided that six continents just isn’t enough. So they’ve fitted the Streetview car with skis (we assume) and dispatched it to the snowy south.

You’ll now be able to take a Streetview tour of Antarctica, taking in such landmarks as The South Pole, penguin nests and the Bransfield Strait (there’s a picture of a whale there).

Whether or not people will complain about the privacy of seals and scientists being violated remains to be seen, but for now you can enjoy some spectacular pictures from the most hostile environment on Earth.

If this all sounds too chilly for you, stay in the warm and follow FirstFound on Twitter or Facebook.

Photo Credit

Taken from The Royal Collection © 2010, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

It looks like even the Royal Family are embracing social media sites. The British Monarchy now has an account on popular photo-sharing site Flickr.

It’s not your typical family photo album, unless your idea of a typical family photo includes forced smiles and overly elaborate clothes, but it does provide an interesting look back at generations of Royal history.

From The Queen’s great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, to her grandchildren, the Flickr album encompasses over a century of British history. Unfortunately there are no memes or LOLcats included, but it’s probably only a matter of time before Her Majesty uploads a few pictures in the traditional “MySpace Pose”.

If you’d rather look at some pictures of contemporary Manchester, don’t forget to take a look at the FirstFound Flickr Account.

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