An App That May Overshare on Facebook

EyeEm shares not only the photos you take, but the photos you view.

Since its copyright blunder last month, Instagram, the wildly popular photo sharing service, has been beset by rivals claiming to give users better control and privacy.

One such rival is EyeEm, a free app that, like Instagram, offers photo filters and lets you follow favorite photographers and look at popular shots from around the world.

It even offers a simplified sign-up process hrough Facebook, which owns Instagram. Therein lies the problem. When you set up your EyeEm account through Facebook, it automatically shares not only the photos you take, but the photos you view.

Let me repeat that. It lets other people see what photos you have been viewing.

Now, not all of the photos on EyeEm are work-appropriate. And if you want to view those, it’s your business â€" unless you signed up through Facebook and haven’t changed the standard privacy settings, in which case it could be many people’s business.

There are people who have had what they thought was their private viewing exposed to their friends, spouses and children on Facebook through EyeEm.

I’m sure EyeEm explains this feature somewhere, but I can’t find where. When you sign up, you get a pop-up message that reads in part, “You can now share your EyeEm activity on your Facebook timeline. Give it a try!” You have a choice of “No, thanks!” or “Enable.”

I don’t think this ! is clear enough about what you will be sharing, but maybe that’s just me.

So in the meantime, unless you want everyone to see what you have looked at, sign up for EyeEm using your e-mail address, not your Facebook account.

Once you have joined, go into your privacy settings and make doubly sure you have your privacy set to the level you want.

Please, let’s avoid oversharing, unintentional and otherwise.