HOW TO REMOVE A PHOTO FROM SEARCH ENGINES

Will a search of your name turn up some of your family photos or other photos that you thought were private?

  


After you clicked on a picture that you thought was yours, did it take you to your own timeline or to stranger's timeline or website?



The first thing you need to do is to see if you were "tagged" on the photo. 

The most likely reason they tagged you on it is because they wanted you to see that they used it.  If you don't have your Facebook TAG REVIEW turned on, you will never see that tag or any others. 



Remember:  only friends can tag friends.  If they are no longer a friend, the tag won't stick - the tag is severed when they are unfriended. 


But with Google, your name will be associated with the photo until you do something about it.



Sometimes photos on other people's timelines are innocent enough. They didn't steal it outright.  They admired the photo and chose to display it on their timeline or website.  No harm, no foul.



The main thing you want to do when you find your photos in searches is to make sure someone isn't using your photos as their own family. 




If they are, click on each photo and follow the prompts to report them as stolen.



HOW TO REMOVE A PHOTO FROM GOOGLE AND OTHER SEARCH ENGINES

For a photo you have on your Facebook account that you don't want to be publicized (or one that you previously had set to ONLY ME and somehow the setting was changed), the easiest way to remove it from Google or any search engine is to totally remove it from your own Facebook account. 



If you posted it anywhere else on the web, you will need to go to each place where you posted it and delete it. 




However, once you delete it from Facebook, generally it will disappear from all of Facebook, including "shares."  




The only exception is:
If someone took a screenshot of your photo so that it becomes a new copy they are keeping for their own use, when you delete it from your account, it won't delete the screenshot. It stays in place. The only thing you can do (if you want to) is report it to Facebook or Google as stolen.




For a photo that originated on Facebook, when it shows up in search engine results and a searcher clicks on it, they will be taken to the Facebook account of the person who posted it.  That isn't always the owner of the photo, because 1) people steal and 2) photos are also linked to "sharers."  




If the photo was used multiple times, search engines will show multiple copies of it, but with a different link on each photo.






  
If the photo was yours in the first place,  when you delete it from your account or where it was posted, it cuts the link from the search engine's link on the photo back to your account.



It also deletes the photo from search engines.  



SAFEKEEPING

Don't keep the photo on your account with a setting of ONLY ME.  


You need to delete it altogether to get it out of the search engines.  


As long as you leave it at ONLY ME, when someone clicks on the photo in searches, the link will take them to your account because the "cached version" shows you as the owner.




However, the searcher won't be able to actually see the photo on your account because you have it set to ONLY ME.  But they will know that the photo is yours because the link told them it is still connected to you.  



As long as a link leads back to you, Google will keep it linked to you even if no one can see the photo.




The cached version of the photo will stay in search results - usually for up to 48 hours after you delete it - then it will be removed from searches.



HOW TO KNOW THE PHOTO WILL BE DELETED FOR SURE  

All photos are linked to something or someone, so when you click on a photo, the link will take where it was used.   



Once you remove a photo altogether (be it on Facebook or a blog or other website), it takes up to 48 hours for Google to remove it from their search results.



The only way it can be removed sooner is if someone reports it after they clicked the link and it gave them a NOT FOUND or a 404 Error Code.  




They are getting that code because the link from the photo did not take them to your account.  Your connection to the photo has now been successfully cut off.  




The 404 Error Code will bounce back to Google's robot (Googlebot) to say that the link to the photo doesn't work because the photo is no longer in a valid location.  


Then Google will pluck it out of the searches.



FYI: Google spent a few billion dollars and 5 years cleaning up error codes and after all that, they only put a small dent in the removals.  The reason there were so many was because they let the error codes pile up.   Most were from people who removed photos, those who deleted their websites and blogs, people who died and their accounts went dormant, and people who lost access to their accounts.


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