Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Hoping to help "heal the heartache" of separation, Facebook has altered a feature which caused photos of users' former lovers to appear when they logged in – but its 500 million members no doubt will be surprised to learn that it is still keeping a record of who their old flames are.
Following a backlash over its Photo Memories sidebar, which gave users an unpleasant surprise by dredging up old snaps of ex-wives or husbands, Facebook has adjusted the feature so it automatically blocked such photos.
Sam Odio, Facebook's project manager said: "While users may still see Photo Memories of their former romantic partners if they didn't declare the relationship on Facebook – as well of their current partner with that person's former partners – the change should help heal the heartache for many users."
However, in order to successfully block the hurt-inducing snaps, the site is now keeping a record of its users' ex-partners – at least, those who have used the site to declare with whom they are in a relationship.
If you have told Facebook your relationship history, there is very little you can do to retrieve the information. According to the site's own policy: "Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may remain viewable elsewhere to the extent it has been shared with others, or it was copied or stored by other users."
The site says the fact that it maintains a log of people's romantic adventures should not be a cause for concern. According to a spokesman: "There is nothing Facebook could do with this information, just as a doctor couldn't share your past medical history with someone else."
But Facebook's record on data protection is likely to be rather more dubious than your local GP. Concerns were raised in a BBC Watchdog programme in October 2007, which showed that it could be used to collect an individual's personal information in order to facilitate identity theft.
The New York Times has also pointed out that if Facebook disables your profile, it amounts to seizing your personal information. The user has vanished from the site, yet Facebook retains the data which that user had submitted.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments