Facebook Photo Memories Will Now Censor Pictures Of Your Ex

Exes can be a thorny issue for Facebook.

At the social network's most recent press conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged the challenges of using an algorithm to create customized "clusters" of close friend on Facebook: "You never want to be presented with a list as a user of exactly the people who you focused on the most, and to see a girl you're flirting with at the top, and an ex-boyfriend next to that, especially when other people might be over your shoulder when you're using Facebook," he said, according to Fast Company.

Facebook's Photo Memories feature has also struggled from the ex problem.

The Photo Memories sidebar offers up photographs from friends' photo albums that were uploaded between six and twelve months before. Inside Facebook explains, "The feature displays a photograph, its caption (or the album title if there is no caption), when it was added, the name of a friend tagged in the photo, and how many additional friends are tagged in the photo."

Although the tool ostensibly hopes to help users reconnect with old friends, see the history they're building on Facebook, and check out photos they may have missed, many on Facebook have complained that the feature upset them by displaying pictures of their exes.

Inside Facebook writes,

Our initial post about Photo Memories received dozens of heartfelt pleas for more control over the feature, or the ability to turn it off. For example, a commenter named Julie said, "It keeps showing pics of my ex and their new significant other and it makes me sick! I'm still in love and I'm trying to move on but it's ridiculously hard when every time I log on, their face pops up on the right hand of screen." An old Facebook group deploring the feature reached over 500 members.

Facebook took note and Facebook Photos Project Manager Sam Odio told users in a comment, "I'd like to let you know that we're listening to your feedback. The photo memories product no longer shows tagged photos of your friends if you were previously in a relationship with them."

Facebook's response is commendable, although there's still the issue that you (and your now ex) may not have listed yourselves as "in a relationship" on Facebook. Mashable adds, "Or what if it's showing you your current squeeze (and it will -- only about 1 in 10 photos the box shows me now are of anyone other than my girlfriend) with one of his or her exes?"

What do you think of the feature? Tell us below.

Comments

[macgruberlives]

01:42 PM on 11/12/2010

Get rid of the damn thing altogether. My ex isn't even tagged in the pics but we have mutual friends still. Her face pops up all the time. Just replace it with ad space jeez, you'll make more money and your users will be happier. Win:Win for everyone.

[annehyphenmarie]

12:14 PM on 10/25/2010

i loathe photo memories. i keep seeing pictures of my current boyfriend with his ex-girlfriend, and i can't stand it. i've even blocked this girl so that she should never exist to me online, yet there she is on my homepage, and i can't get rid of her. i've been marking every photo that pops up as "offensive," but it isn't helping. this feature needs to be optional or removed altogether.

[gypsy214]

11:46 PM on 10/24/2010

What bothers me about this is that "Photo Memories" is another Facebook app that I wasn't aware of untill I read a story about it - in this case, the ones about not showing your ex. I don't even know where this feature is - can't find it on my FB profile.

[bascombe]

08:56 AM on 10/24/2010

so Chris rock has done his job.
LOL!!!!!!

[Sandy Knauer]

11:25 PM on 10/23/2010

Unbelievable. Guess we can depend on Facebook to assist in our regression.

[markstl3828]

11:06 PM on 10/23/2010

This is ludicrous. Why in earth would you be concerned about seeing pics of an x on some random website. Get a life people and do something else besides get on fb all your life.

[Kalyan]

09:56 PM on 10/23/2010

Hey HuffPo! What can I do you for? ;)

[rsm123w]

09:26 PM on 10/23/2010

Didn't understand a word in this article.

[goldgoose]

08:08 PM on 10/23/2010

I am not in favor of nationalizing the internet. However, I think that because of the many complaints about privacy etc on social networks for instance; I feel that the Government, through the US Postal Service should provide some secure internet services services. After all, the USPS was founded by our Constitutional forefathers because communication was too important to trust to the private sector. USPS has served the public well in this respect; unfortunately, Congress has not respected USPS contributions to our society. The USPS needs to be modernized and the internet need some security and reliability that USPS could provide. I would suggest writing Congress with this idea.

[goldgoose]

08:16 PM on 10/23/2010

Sorry, I rather screwed this post up. I will try again if you are interested.
I am not in favor of nationalizing the internet. However, I think that because of the many complaints I have heard about privacy etc., on social networks for instance, I feel that the Government could, through the US Postal Service, provide some secure internet services like a competitive social network. Who would you rather trust running a social network, USPS or Enron. After all, the USPS was founded by our Constitutional forefathers because communication was too important to trust to the private sector. Personally, I feel the same today. USPS has served the public well in this respect. Unfortunately, Congress has not respected USPS contributions to our society and Congress has more or less thrown USPS under the bus. The USPS needs to be modernized and the internet need some security and reliability that USPS could provide. To me, this is a good idea and I would suggest writing the USPS and Congress about this idea.

[excellent chef]

07:33 PM on 10/23/2010

I have never appreciated the value of Face Book. Why share your social life on a computer with strangers, ex's or employers. why would I want to some of my friends to see my "other" friends?? If you want to communicate or send pictures use email in Outlook or web based. Whats the big fuss about creating profiles for all and sundry to view which may, at a later date, prove so embarrassing and impossible to erase from Google's tentacles? I can imagine computer illiterates using this dumbo app, but not a thinking person. Same goes for the bird-brained Twitter.

[LeftRight]

06:58 PM on 10/23/2010

I just ignore it, it's not too terribly diificult to do!

[IHateTheGOP]

05:19 PM on 10/23/2010

Hell, if I wanted to see a picture of my ex, I'd just get an ugly dog and put glasses on it!

[ceez]

06:39 PM on 10/23/2010

wrong yet lol at the same time!

[annehyphenmarie]

12:17 PM on 10/25/2010

i love it!

[Jim Janek]

05:13 PM on 10/23/2010

good idea.

[nidhi]

04:03 PM on 10/23/2010

thanks facebook, much appreciated. hope it actually works.

[Panasit Ch]

03:54 PM on 10/23/2010

Wow, if only Facebook officials would come right to my school or my place of work and just delete anything that will remind me of the existence of my ex, or force my boss to transfer her to a different branch.

In all seriousness, Facebook should just remain neutral about the matter, in my opinion. I hate seeing my Ex online too as friend of a friend, but I never blame facebook for it. That's life.