Facebook users can finally breathe a sigh of relief. The networking site will finally get rid of the most embarrassing photos that you deleted for good this time; no floating around in some random place long after your friends had seen the last of your drunken escapades.

Well, almost. You’ll have to wait at least 30 days for that to happen. Facebook told the website Ars Technica that it has a new photo storage system and will delete those photos you don’t want within a reasonable timeframe.

Facebook spokesman Frederic Wolens admitted to Ars Technica and millions of hyperventilating users in February that the previous photo storage system “did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time” despite having been deleted on Facebook immediately after request. Whether it was intentional or not, it means Facebook kept those drunken photos even though you couldn’t find it on your profile page.

While Facebook has taken in some cases up to a year for incriminating photos to disappear, photos from other social media sites like Flickr and Twitter merely took a few seconds. No wonder Facebook users always complain about their privacy. While Facebook has had a slew of privacy disasters like the forced timeline and privacy settings shakeup, this issue is probably one of the ones that the average Facebooker has feared the most.

Creators and Facebook users alike should benefit from Facebook’s nominal improvement on privacy. While the time frame between deletion from Facebook and actual deletion from its server is still slow, it will likely make users more confident again in putting their photos and other information on their profile page or fan page.

This change may be necessary now that the company has to report to shareholders rather than having free reign like before. While the news may stop millions of users from worrying and wondering if those awful photos from the company Christmas party will ever disappear from Facebook’s servers, watching what you upload in the first place is the best protection from future embarrassment. By making the right judgments in the first place, you won’t have your dignity controlled by the whims of social media sites. Your reputation and career will thank you later for it.