Photobucket Privacy

[ronpaul50]

PhotoBucket Album Privacy Settings

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There appears to be a situation with PhotoBucket that not all our members are aware of. RFC members should be aware of the "Public/Private" nature of using PB as a hosting service for pictures linked to RFC.

I am definitely not a computer guru. PhotoBucket keeps changing every time I get it about half way figured out. I believe the latest change was made around last January. It appears to me that they are trying to cash in on the "social networking" craze.

When opening a new PB account or creating a new subdirectory, the default appears to be "public". There is also a default user account setting that is set to "link back to album".

I have noticed when moving the pointer over an image posted on RFC that it turns to the pointing finger, indicating a clickable link. This means that the "link back to album" option in the PB user setting has been checked. Clicking on the photo displays the same picture in the user's PB account. It also exposes the user's directory path in the upper left corner. IF... the album is "public", clicking on the directory path reveals the user's entire PB account subdirectory. ALL albums not marked as "private" (indicated by an icon of a closed lock) can then be viewed by anyone.

I apologize if it appears that I'm snooping, but the same thing was happening to my own account until I caught on and reset the privacy tabs. Any member unaware of this may be unintentionally exposing personal pictures or information to the public.

*****************

I went to the help section (of PB) and read all the "self help" stuff to figure out what was going on with my own account. Here is what I did to make mine private.

There is more than one way to get the same results, but I'll tell you the easiest universal fix.

* Log into your account.

* Your account user name will display at the upper right of the initial screen.

* Click on your user name.

* Click on "user settings" on the drop down menu which appears.

* Click on the "Privacy" tab when the next page appears

* Scroll to the bottom of the page and select "make all private"

Click "save"

*******

At this point the RFC photo is still linked back to PB, but the album is now private and no one can progress into your albums or into your main directory.

To prevent the link back (works for future uploads only):

Scroll back to the top of the page if previously clicking the "save" didn't take you there.

Click on the "Albums" tab.

Near the bottom Uncheck the "Link back to albums" box

Click save and you should be done.

**********