Photo tagging: the next blow in online reputation management

I ran across a strange photo tag on Facebook the other day: the rear-end of a horse tagged "Joe has such a pretty face" that had been associated with another person with whom I'm friends on the social-networking site. Luckily, it was just another friend of ours, Dustin—himself a savvy web user and analyst—pushing the envelope. You can read his post on the subject, which he aptly calls "assault-tagging" at his blog, Web Connoisseur.

I read the post and decided to comment, which I've copied below.

Ah, a funny joke to be sure. And certainly, if you hadn't started it, someone else would have at some point. But these sorts of things are what lead services like Facebook to have to implement restrictions (such as requiring users to approve tags in photos) that make the whole process more cumbersome.

Of course, the other view can be taken: you're a white-hat "hacker" exposing potential issues with Facebook so they can set up safeguards (like my example above) before any "real" damage might occur.

This is the sort of thing I'd expect to see on MySpace with its younger-skewed demographic. But time—and the sort of people you've friended—will demonstrate how wide spread this tactic will become.

What do you think about this?

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