Some photos just don't need to see the light of the next day.

Facebook is still working on deleting photos from its servers in a timely manner nearly three years after Ars first brought attention to the topic. The company admitted on Friday that its older systems for storing uploaded content "did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site," but said it's currently finishing up a newer system that makes the process much quicker. In the meantime, photos that users thought they "deleted" from the social network months or even years ago remain accessible via direct link.

The problem: "deleted" photos never go away

When we first investigated this phenomenon in 2009, we discovered that photos "deleted" from Facebook seemingly never go away if you have a direct link to the image file on Facebook's servers. Users who might have had second thoughts about posting a photo—whether it was because they didn't want retaliation from an employer, wanted to avoid family drama, or uploaded a photo of a friend without their permission—could certainly remove the image from Facebook's main user interface, but as long as someone had a direct link to the .jpg file in question, the photo would remain accessible for an indefinite amount of time. When we asked Facebook about it, we were told that the company was "working with our content delivery network (CDN) partner to significantly reduce the amount of time that backup copies persist."

But when we followed up on the story more than a year later, our "deleted" photos were still accessible via direct link. That's when the reader stories started pouring in: we were told horror stories about online harassment using photos that were allegedly deleted years ago, and users who were asked to take down photos of friends that they had put online.

There were plenty of stories in between as well, and panicked Facebook users continue to e-mail me, asking if we have heard of any new way to ensure that their deleted photos are, well, deleted. For example, one reader linked me to a photo that a friend of his had posted of his toddler crawling naked on the lawn. He asked his friend to take it down for obvious reasons, and so the friend did—in May of 2008. As of this writing in 2012, I have personally confirmed that the photo is still online, as are several others that readers linked me to that were deleted at various points in 2009 and 2010.

(Amusingly, after publishing the 2010 followup, Facebook appeared to delete my photos from its CDN that I had linked in the piece. The company never offered me any explanation, but my photos were the only ones that were deleted at that time. Other "deleted" photos that I had saved links to—ones that weren't from my account and were deleted even earlier than mine—remained online.)

It's 2012, and things aren't much different—yet

After confirming once again that all the photos that my friends and Ars readers had sent in were still online, I reached out to Facebook once again, looking for an answer as to why this is still going on nearly three years after the company first promised it was "working" on the issue.

"The systems we used for photo storage a few years ago did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site," Facebook spokesperson Frederic Wolens told Ars via e-mail.

Wolens explained that photos remaining online are stuck in a legacy system that was apparently never operating properly, but said the company is working on a new system that will delete the photos in a mere month and a half. For really real this time.

"We have been working hard to move our photo storage to newer systems which do ensure photos are fully deleted within 45 days of the removal request being received," Wolens said. "This process is nearly complete and there is only a very small percentage of user photos still on the old system awaiting migration, the URL you provided was stored on this legacy system. We expect this process to be completed within the next month or two, at which point we will verify the migration is complete and we will disable all the old content."

Long story short, Wolens claims that Facebook is on the verge of fixing up its content systems so that "deleted" photos are really, truly deleted from the CDN within 45 days. But with the process not expected to be finished until a couple months from now—and unfortunately, with a company history of stretching the truth when asked about this topic—we'll have to see it before we believe it.

It's hard to believe that we've been following this story over a period of years and the problem hasn't been fixed yet. But unlike the past, we do have some semblance of confidence that Facebook might actually be working on it this time. We'll continue to follow this story until the new changes are actually in place. In the meantime, does anyone have any new Facebook horror stories to share?

"A recent survey conducted by a UK based divorce website disclosed that 33 percent of behavior divorce petitions filed cite Facebook as a cause for filing for divorce in 2011. In 2009 this figure was 20 per cent. 5000 people were surveyed by Divorce-Online, the UK divorce website, during 2009 and 2011 covering Facebook as a means to check behavior of spouse with the opposite sex and spouses using the social networking platform to comment about their exes post the separation. Three reasons that came out on the top for listing Facebook in divorce petition were inappropriate messages sent to the opposite sex, posting nasty comments about exes, and friends on Facebook reporting about spouse's behavior."

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Starting in January 2012, Facebook will gradually begin showing Sponsored Stories social ads in the main news feed of the web version of the site, a representative of the company tells us. Facebook hasn’t shown ads in the news feed since 2008, so this has big ramifications for advertisers and the user experience.

The ads will be marked “Sponsored” and a rate limit will ensure users see no more than 1 Sponsored Story in the news feed per day. They’ll only feature stories about friends or Pages that users already like. Users won’t be able to opt out of seeing Sponsored Stories in the news feed or having their activity used in them, but they will be able to ‘x’ out individual ads. The ads won’t immediately appear in the mobile news feed, though Facebook is considering the idea as we discussed earlier this month.

The screenshot above shows how the ads will look in the news feed. The ability to display promoted content alongside organic social content in the popular and highly addictive news feed is essentially the holy grail for advertisers. While users are attentively browsing photos and updates from friends, they’ll end up consuming ads as well. The ads look so similar to organic news feed stories and are only marked in the bottom right corner — the last place a user’s eyes will scan. That means users probably won’t notice the difference until they’ve already internalized an ad’s message.

Some users will likely be outraged by the presence of ads in the news feed, as well as by having their content so directly used to make Facebook money. Others may argue that Facebook provides a valuable service to users for free, and is therefore entitled to showing ads where it wants to.

Personally, I’d rather see Sponsored Stories that inform me about the activity of friends than traditional ads that can be much less relevant. However, the rate limit will be crucial to maintaining a high quality user experience. If too many news feed Sponsored Stories are shown a day, the feed could deteriorate into a billboard and users might not be so eager to visit Facebook anymore.

Starting in 2006, Facebook tested allowing advertisers to pay to show sponsored content in the news feed. Facebook discontinued the program in 2008, deciding that advertisers shouldn’t be able to pay to show content in the news feed unless it could appear there naturally.

For years, all ads were confined to a small sidebar on the right side of the interface. In January 2011, though, Facebook launched Sponsored Stories. They allow advertisers to pay to turn the news feed stories generated by interactions between users and businesses into ads. These actions can include a user Liking a Page, receiving a news feed update from a Page they already Like, checking in to a local business, sharing content from an external website, or using an application. Below you can see how the Sponsored Stories flow works, and at the bottom of this article is an excerpt from Facebook’s guide for advertisers that shows all the ad types.

This fall, Sponsored Stories began appearing in the Ticker, the first time it had mixed ads with social content since 2008. Users didn’t actively protest having updates of their friends adulterated with ads, possibly bolstering Facebook’s confidence that it could show ads in the main news feed without ruining the user experience. After all, the ads are only showing content that could already appear in the feed.

Starting in January, when advertisers pay for these Sponsored Stories, they’ll be eligible to appear in the main news feed in addition to the ads sidebar. By mixing them in with social content on the site’s home page they’ll be much more noticeable and therefore more valuable to advertisers. The word “Sponsored” will appear in gray in the bottom right of the ad stories. If hovered over, it reads “This was already shared with you. A sponsor paid to feature it here”. Facebook tells me it will also be educating users about how Sponsored Stories work in other ways, such as sidebar ads that link to the Help Center’s Sponsored Stories section.

Given that Facebook has roughly 400 million daily users, half of which are on the web, Facebook could boost its daily ad inventory by up to 200 million impressions. This inventory expansion could reduce ad prices, though an increase in advertiser demand for Sponsored Stories could offset this. Facebook hasn’t finalized whether advertisers will have the option to specifically request placement in the news feed. Studies have shown sidebar Sponsored Stories have a 46% higher click through rate than traditional ads, and you can expect the CTR of news feed Sponsored Stories to be even higher.

If Facebook can weather the protest of users who want an ad-free news feed, it will have managed to open a significant new revenue stream. The launch of news feed Sponsored Stories could also be a big turning point for online advertising. With prominent placement on one of the world’s most visited sites and their appeal to viewers from including the faces and activity of friends, Sponsored Stories news feed ads could help Facebook steal ad spend from paid search and traditional display such as Google AdWords and AdSense.

Update: This article originally stated that Facebook had never shown ads in the news feed before. However, Facebook tested sponsored content in the news feed in 2006 to 2008, as this article now reflects.

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