Since you now know how locked-down Facebook is, use these privacy settings to keep your own picture safe:
The internet is full of websites claiming to be "Facebook Profile Viewers." Exercise extreme caution:
Another old method involved using Facebook’s own developer tools (Graph API Explorer) to pull profile picture IDs. By manipulating the URL (e.g., https://graph.facebook.com/[UserID]/picture?type=large ), users could sometimes force a larger image. Facebook has since patched this to respect privacy settings. For private profiles, the API will return a generic silhouette or the low-res thumbnail, not the full image.
Viewing a private Facebook profile picture in full resolution is restricted by Facebook’s privacy architecture. When a user "locks" their profile or sets photos to "Friends Only," non-friends are typically limited to a low-resolution thumbnail. Official Privacy Limitations
: If you know someone who is already friends with the person, they can right-click the profile picture and select "Open image in new tab."