'Deleted' Facebook photos still viewable

MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Photos deleted by users of Facebook have lingered on the social network's servers for nearly three years, an investigation by a U.S. tech Web site found.

Web site Ars Technica found that some of the photos users believed were "deleted" from the social network years ago are still accessible on Facebook's servers via direct link to the .jpg file, Ars Technica said.

Facebook, blaming its older systems for not always deleting user-uploaded content within a reasonable time frame, said it was moving to a new system that would accomplish that within a timely fashion.

"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," Facebook representative Frederic Wolens told Ars Technica in an e-mail.

Photos remaining online are "stuck" in a legacy system that has never operated properly, Wolens said, resulting in the move to a new system.