Half Of Social Networking Sites Keep Users' Photos After Deletion:

[Peaches]

Half Of Social Networking Sites Keep Users' Photos After Deletion: Study

University of Cambridge study examined 16 popular Web sites that host user-uploaded photos,including social networking sites, blogging sites, and dedicated photo-sharing sites

May 21, 2009 | 11:58 AM

"Researchers from the University of Cambridge today announced the results of a new study demonstrating that many social networking sites maintain copies of user photos after users delete them. This could be an unpleasant surprise to users who believe they have deleted an embarrassing photo, only to find out it is still available on the web.

The study examined 16 popular web sites which host user-uploaded photos, including social networking sites, blogging sites, and dedicated-photo-sharing sites. 7 of the 16 sites surveyed were still maintaining copies of users' photos after 30 days.

To perform their experiment, the researchers uploaded photos to each of the 16 sites, then deleted them, but kept note of direct URLs to the photos from the sites' content delivery networks.

These links continued to work even though a typical user would think the photos were permanently deleted. There is no simple interface to tell when a photo has ultimately been purged from a site due to the technical details of how photos are stored. "

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