You might have noticed something new happening on your Facebook page. Yesterday, the social network started asking users to sync photos to Facebook. Essentially, Facebook wants you to synch all of your mobile phone photos with your Facebook account. If you were to add up all the Android and iOS Facebook app users alone, that number would be well into the millions (monthly).

Facebook wants to make sharing photos simpler by letting users uploading photos to Facebook without selecting anything or going through any real motions. But, there are a few things that you should know before you hit that sync button.

Think Before You Sync

Facebook presents its new synching option as a cool and casual way to share photos. When Facebook asks you if you want to sync, you might just tap that “get started” button without a second thought – but there’s a good reason to think. When you sync your photos with Facebook, the last twenty photos you’ve taken will show up automatically. In addition, every single photo that you shoot from now on will appear on your Facebook page. Granted, these photos will be sent to a separate folder, and you can set privacy settings to protect these photos, but, still, do you really want every photo you snap from now on to be displayed on Facebook?

Why is Facebook going the synching route? The answer here is relatively simple. Facebook has just created a photo recognition system. This system makes it possible for the network to recognize all of your friends simply according to face shape. So, from now on, you won’t have to tag any friends in photos. Facebook will do all the tagging for you. As you tag more friends, more friends visit your page, Facebook collects data, and everyone’s happy – unless, of course, you don’t want to sync your photos.

No Need To Sync

For now, Facebook users still have the option to sync or not to sync. So, when Facebook asks you if you want to sync your photos, you might want to think twice before hitting that “Get Started” button. Otherwise, all of those photo mistakes you make will be displayed for the world to see. In addition to the new photo synching feature, Facebook has also made some changes to the way that your photos are displayed on your Facebook homepage. If you check out your photos now, you will see a banner at the top of the Facebook page that states: “Now! A More Beautiful View of Photos!” Clicking that banner will take you to a page that explains the new photos display options.

Some of these options include resizing photos, adding locations and dates, and liking or commenting on a photo just by clicking on that photo. Soon, your Facebook page will be filled with large photos that your friends have taken. Further, you may start seeing hundreds of photos pop up on your news feed if you have a friend who’s synched a phone and snaps a lot of pictures. Is the Facebook photo synching option a good idea? It all depends on what you want the world to see – and what information you want Facebook to collect.