Mahh-velous...
Oct. 12th, 2010 06:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpAccording to a piece published on Ars Technica, it would appear that deleting a photo on Facebook is a lot like deleting a file from your computer: the file isn't really gone, you just can't get at it.
Unless, it turns out, you happen to know exactly where to go look for it, or - in the case of a photo posted to Facebook - one happens to possess the direct URL to the photo.
While Facebook repeated assurances to Ars that they were working with their "content delivery network" to reduce the amount of time deleted material remains in the network cache, the fact of the matter is that a photo of Ars reporter Jacqui Cheng deleted from Facebook on May 21, 2009 was apparently still accessible on the Facebook CDN servers up to earlier today.
That's, like, 16 months!
Of course, the major lesson to be taken away from this is to always assume that anything you upload or post to the Internet will remain there forever (with all of the deliciously evil implications suggested by Murphy's Law).
Cheers...
Unless, it turns out, you happen to know exactly where to go look for it, or - in the case of a photo posted to Facebook - one happens to possess the direct URL to the photo.
While Facebook repeated assurances to Ars that they were working with their "content delivery network" to reduce the amount of time deleted material remains in the network cache, the fact of the matter is that a photo of Ars reporter Jacqui Cheng deleted from Facebook on May 21, 2009 was apparently still accessible on the Facebook CDN servers up to earlier today.
That's, like, 16 months!
Of course, the major lesson to be taken away from this is to always assume that anything you upload or post to the Internet will remain there forever (with all of the deliciously evil implications suggested by Murphy's Law).
Cheers...
