Facebook is by far one of the most popular social media platforms to ever exist, having recorded 2.7 billion monthly active users in Q2 2020.Â
However, data privacy, especially with its user’s pictures, has always been a concern at the platform. With the ease with which one could make a fake profile, there’s a legitimate concern around people taking screenshots of other people’s profile pictures.
Also read: How to change your gender on Facebook?
Can people see if their profile picture has been screenshotted?
The short answer is no.
Profile pictures are treated just like every other photo you upload on the platform, and there’s no way of knowing if your profile picture has been screenshotted.
If you try to take a screenshot of someone else’s profile picture, the only notification anyone will get is you with your phone saying you just took a screenshot. However, Facebook has put measures in place to prevent this from happening.Â
Facebook profile picture guard
In June 2017, Facebook launched the profile picture guard in India. This is an optional layer of protection that users can activate to prevent their photos from being screenshotted in the first place.
Profile pictures protected with the Profile Picture Guard carry a badge sign on them to signify that these are protected images and can’t be screenshotted or downloaded.
Here’s how you can enable this feature if you haven’t already.
- Open the Facebook app and head over to your profile by tapping the profile icon.
- Tap on your profile picture to bring up a few options.
- Tap on Turn On Profile Picture Guard.
- You’ll be told what the Profile Picture Guard does and how it works. Tap on Next to proceed.
- You’ll be shown a preview of how your profile picture looks with the Profile Picture Guard badge.
- Tap on Save to save the changes, and you’re done.
Now no one will be able to screenshot or download your profile picture. You can, of course, disable the feature anytime you like.
Also read: How to change the date of birth in Facebook?
