Facebook Photo Sync Available to All Users

Facebook has unveiled a new feature for iOS and Android users titled Photo Sync. Over the years, Facebook has improved its functionality for handheld devices, particularly smartphones and tablets. The new feature provides users the option of automatically syncing all the photos they have on their phone with Facebook. As of now, the feature is optional and its pros and cons are still under a cloud.

According to Facebook, the photos would be retrieved from the user’s phone without prompting and uploaded to the social network. However, they would not be shared with the user’s friends or public and will be kept in a private album. From there, the user has the option of deciding whether or not he/she wants to share those pictures with his/her friends.

This provides a highly convenient option for Android and iPhone users. They no longer have to manually upload the photos they snap to Facebook. All they need to do now is take the pictures and Facebook will take care of the rest. This is especially a great feature for the users who like to take pictures on the go. The photos will be uploaded to the website directly and then the user can decide which ones he/she wants to make public.

However, the new feature has already come under fire from some quarters. Market experts claim this is another ploy from Facebook to invade their users’ privacy. It is true to a certain extent as Facebook can now retrieve your pictures from your smartphone and upload it without asking you. If you have activated the automatic Photo Sync, there would be no stopping the social network from accessing the photos you have stored on your phone.

Even though the user gets to decide whether or not the photos are to be shared, they are still being saved online on Facebook’s servers. The social network has access to them if and when it wants. There is no word yet from the company itself about how it would implement the privacy policy on a feature such as this one.

Facebook has promised it does not share any content uploaded or posted by the user without permission. Yet, it remains to be seen whether they treat the photos uploaded automatically through Photo Sync in the same way. With over 300 million pictures being uploaded to Facebook daily, Photo Sync is one feature which has the potential to catch on.

[Images via idownloadblog, theverge & digitaltrends]