An app developed by a Dutch couple which makes photographs uploaded to Facebook unusable by third parties has been removed from the approved list by the internet company, the Volkskrant says on Monday.

The app, named Reclaim Yourself, gives photos a watermark which makes them less attractive to use for commercial purposes. Facebook’s new privacy rules come into effect at the end of this week and give the company the right to use all photographs uploaded to the site for other purposes.

The app’s designers Sipke Jan Bousema and Willem van Leunen were given the green light by Facebook to introduce it in December, the Volkskrant says.

However, 20 days later the app has been scrapped and all photographs which were processed with it have been removed, the Volkskrant says.

Van Leunen says he has made a formal protest to Facebook but has heard nothing.

The Volkskrant says the media attention has led to Faceback replacing some of the photographs, including pictures which users themselves had removed.