Another FB tagging question—3rd party tagging not-in-the-photo people

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

What do you do about requests to tag your photos with people who aren’t actually in the photos and whom you aren’t FB friends with (assuming it’s not obvious spam)?

I’m curious about generality, but my situation:
I posted a bunch of photos from a local club event, added captions with names, but only tagged people whom I know want to be tagged and whom I’m FB friends with (thus able to tag), and encouraged people to tag their friends, since I’m not FB friends with a lot of the group, but most of my friends are. Note that I do know everyone IRL, so I can tell if the tag requests are really for the right people.  The album, unlike most of my locked-down profile, is set as "Friends of Friends (and Friends of Tagged)", so I am positive that everyone in the album can be tagged by someone I’m friends with, or whom my friends are friends with (and, I’m 95% sure that everyone in the album w/ a FB account can access it, even if not tagged). (all that make sense?)

One person (Alex) requested a tag—right on the subject’s face—for the person pictured’s partner (let’s call the photographed person Lesley, the requested tag/partner Shannon).

I’m not friends with Shannon or Lesley—I’m not even sure Lesley (in the photo) has a FB account. Shannon’s account is public enough that I can see a lot of their photos, and none of them seem to be ones where Shannon is tagged, but it’s really Lesley—so I don’t think this is standard procedure for the couple. But, there could be a ton I don’t have permission to see, of course.

Is this just another awkward way of alerting Shannon that Lesley’s photo’s up there?

Would you allow the tag and leave it up to Shannon to accept/delete? Would you just ignore? Would you ask the tagger (Alex) why they tagged Shannon on Lesley’s photo?

[Harriet Jones]

I think they're just notifying someone who'd be interested in the photo.  It's awkward that they're labeling someone with the wrong name, though.

[TootsNYC]

I think if you want to tag someone to notify them (and their friends) about the photo, you shouldn't do it right on someone's face; do it in the corner.

(I once tagged my brother in a photo he wasn't in but SHOULD have been, and I tagged him on the empty space where his face should have appeared. As a way to say, "I wish you'd been there for this.")

I might deny the tag, and then drop Alex an e-mail to say, "Saw your tag for Shannon on Lesley's pic; I didn't want it to be confusing, so I denied it, but I dropped her an e-mail to be sure she saw the photos." (and, of course, e-mail Shannon)

[jmarvellous]

Since you're asking what I would do: Nothing. It wouldn't bother me much because I frequently see people tag photos with the name of one partner when the pictured partner is not on Facebook.

I'd leave it up to the tagged person to accept or reject the tag. I wouldn't want MY name on a picture of my partner only (though I'd appreciate the chance to check out the picture), so I'd untag it if someone did that to me.

But it has never come up with my own photos, so I guess it could be a case-by-case thing.

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

Thanks for the advice. jmarvellous: My settings require that I approve any tags to my photos, so at that point, it was up to me to decide to approve the request, which then would be passed on for Shannon to approve.

I let Shannon know about the photo, but ultimately denied the tag from even being passed along for approval, as I agree with Toots that it should be a corner, if anything.

This whole album has been a lesson in why I normally have everything locked down. Another photo got a comment from someone I don’t know, and whom I’m not sure actually knew the people in the photo that said something like "Hey person doing club activity, you should donate to my [cause] campaign because they are similar!". I mean, really? There are good ways to ask for donations, and ways that just scream SPAM to me. That one got deleted quickly.

[sweetonsno]

I would not allow the tag myself, because I wouldn't want to be tagged. I did adjust my own security settings to prevent this from happening (I have to approve tags), but I'm not sure about everyone else. I think that in this situation, the best bet is to ask people to "share" the photo and let the 3rd party tag themselves if they want to be tagged.

[Browyn]

The only time I tag someone not in the photo is if I posted the photo and want to make certain that person sees it:

2 examples - I was working on sewing a renaissance faire costume for a friend's 7 year old niece and I was posting pictures of the progress.  And when we visit and post pictures of my MIL (in a nursing home) I tag my SIL because she doesn't get to visit her Mom often (distance) and likes to know how she is doing.  I think seeing pictures of her Mom happy with her grandchild (my DS) makes her feel less guilty for only being able to call.

[kherbert05]

For adults I don't know. In my case we do this with the kids. When I post pictures of my young cousins, I tag them with their parents name.

[JustRhon]

My 16 year old son's gf drives me nuts doing this. Every photo she posts of my son (and there are multiple photos daily) she tags me in so now I have about 170 "photos of me" that are really just my son or of them together. I wish she would just tag him. I look over his page and photos several times a week to make sure there is nothing inappropriate so I would see them anyway.

[greencat]

Rhon, change your settings to require approval of tags.  I'm not sure what combination of religious rituals is currently required to do so, but it's worth it (to avoid unflattering photos of yourself being tagged as well!)

[JustRhon]

Rhon, change your settings to require approval of tags.  I'm not sure what combination of religious rituals is currently required to do so, but it's worth it (to avoid unflattering photos of yourself being tagged as well!)

Thank you. I had no idea this was possible. Love the religious ritual part.

[artk2002]

Just had an issue come up around this...

Both of my sons are on FB (they're old enough) and one of my rules is that they have to 'friend' me. Much to my surprise this afternoon, up popped a picture of a classmate smoking a cigar -- he's in Greece and apparently there's no legal age. It showed up because he tagged my son, so it's showing up under "Pictures of Grant."  I called my son (he's at his mom's) and asked him to remove the tag. His friend is welcome to be an idiot in public, but I don't like the idea of my son being dragged along with him.

[thedudeabides]

It sounds like the friend wanted to tag it to let the person know, through the partner's FB profile, that there was a picture of the person online.  I have to say I don't generally notice if people tag other people in my photos, and this wouldn't be a situation where I would care.