Facebook Lied : A Facebook Feature Which Kills Another Feature
Tags: security, awareness, facebook, india
Published: 2018-12-19 12:22:32

---
title: Facebook Lied : A Facebook Feature Which Kills Another Feature
published: true
description: A Facebook Feature Which Kills Another Feature
cover_image: https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/8x8o7b4ufniforny0vda.jpg
tags: security , awareness , facebook, india
---

Facebook, Facebook , Facebook.... 2018 was not quite a **Happy Year** for Facebook.. Though I'm not here talk about those.

Today I'll talk about a facebook features which is totally killing another feature. So without further talking let's jump into the main content.. 

I'll keep it short and simple...

Back in 2017 , Facebook introduced **Profile Picture Guard** for indian users to secure their photos from misuse. 
[[Source]](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2017/6/22/15851662/facebook-profile-picture-protection-india)

When Profile Picture Guard Turned on a Profile , other users will not be able to download images from that profile and blue border appears on the profile picture : 

![](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/qdje9p4mrn7el0ha4jku.png)

And on the bottom you'll not see any **View Full Size** Option

![No Download Options](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/nt3ga7l8swrpdtoa5v55.png)

**Wait...!! I forgot One Thing, According The Claim , Facebook should be preventing users from taking screenshot, But where is the feature?😑**

Now , Leave that for now, there's already a Facebook Feature which we can use to download anybody's profile picture bypassing the so-called **Profile Picture Guard** 

So , Let's take a Look at How We Can Download a Profile Picture with Profile Picture Guard turned on.

First Thing We'll need is Victim's , I mean target's **Numerical Profile ID** (or whatever it's called)
We can extract target's **Numerical Profile ID** with **<https://findmyfbid.in/>** if profile id isn't visible and has username such as _bauripalash_ , _abcd_ etc..

Now visit 
`https://graph.facebook.com/USERNAME/picture?width=800` and replace **USERNAME** with target's **Numerical Profile ID**

**Now You'll See The Profile Picture of The Target User Will Be Shown and Also available for Download**

**Now! My Question is, Is Facebook Fooling Us , Indians? 😡**

They Day when I found this, I reported that to Facebook Whitehat Program. At first I thought, There must be some authentication or api key system and maybe it's broken somehow!
After few days , I got reply from a staff , In Summary , he said 

> Thanks for your report, but we do not consider capturing a public image from the web to be eligible for a bounty under our program.
...
> It’s important to remember the profile picture is always public. The feature you mentioned is a pilot test to see how these tools can help people have better control over how other people engage with their profile picture on Facebook.
...

I mean  😑  anybody can download a so-called Guarded Profile Picture. Then what's the use of Profile Picture Guard? Just A Fancy Blue Border! 😓

**Disclaimer : I , Palash Bauri or Dev.to is not Responsible for any damage done with the methods mentioned here. This article is only for educational and awareness purposes**

---
If You Like My Work (My Articles, Stories, Softwares, Researches and many more) Consider [Buying Me A Coffee ☕](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/palash) 🤗