On an overcast afternoon, she received a friend request from that same profile. No message. She hovered over “Accept,” then did something she had never done before: she wrote. “Why do you lock your profile?” she asked. The reply came a day later: “Because I choose who sees me. Because I owe myself that much.”

This classic workaround uses Facebook's basic interface to access the direct image URL, though it only yields the standard-resolution file rather than the full HD original.

While the platform aggressively patches security loopholes to protect locked accounts, a few legitimate browser extensions and legacy mobile workarounds still exist.