Facebook pilots tools that prevents profile pictures from being stolen

Facebook is piloting new safety tools, that gives users more control over who can download and share their profile photos that include the face. The tool is currently being tested in India, and Facebook plans to roll out to other countries soon.

The new tool is called profile picture guard, and prevents other users from being able to download, share or send your profile picture in a message on Facebook. Moreover, people who are not you're friends, won't be able to tag anyone, including themselves in your profile photo. 

Where possible, Facebook will prevent other from taking a screenshot of your profile photo. Unfortunately, this feature is only available for Android devices, and not for desktops. You'll see a blue border and shield around the profile photo of a user who is using  profile picture guard.  

Also now on-wards, Facebook users in India will also start seeing a step-by-step guide on how to add an optional profile picture guard. 

In addition, Facebook is also exploring ways people could more easily add designs to their profile photos, which Facebook research has shown helpful in deterring misuse. For this feature, Facebook has teamed up with Jessica Singh, an illustrator who took inspiration from traditional Indian textile designs such as bandhni and kantha, to create designs for people to add to their profile picture. If a profile picture marked with design is being misused, you can report it to Facebook, and it will remove it.

The new safety tools has been developed in collaboration with India's safety organization like Centre for Social Research, Learning Links Foundation, Breakthrough and Youth Ki Awaaz.  A research with people and safety organizations in the country revealed that some women choose not to upload profile pictures of their faces because they fear of the photo being misused. Based on preliminary tests, Facebook has learned that 75 percent of users are less likely to copy a protected profile picture. 

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