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To: grania
on sites such as Facebook, can someone specify that their photos cannot be referred to or reproduced wothout their pemission? Can they have something there that states the site is only for those they have given permission to?

Other posters already commented on that, but let me add a few words. In essence, if you upload a photo somewhere (be it FB or your own Web site,) you give permission to everyone who can access that photo to see it. But you have no technical means of preventing copying of that information. The picture can be saved with right click of the mouse; if that is blocked, the entire browser window can be captured; failing that, the screen can be photographed with a camera.

This is a serious problem when you need to restrict access to information - such as to classified information. There were several leaks recently; regardless of their merits, they were technically possible because the information was exfiltrated, by one method or another; on tapes, on a CD-RW, or even in someone's head. Things that are seen by another person are no longer yours alone.

This is a good illustration of value of old photo albums. They always remain under your control. People can see them if you allow; but they cannot copy. Images that are not copied are pretty safe, just because humans are so bad with memorizing and duplicating images. But even if an artist sees such a photo, all he can do is to make a painting that will be similar, but still his own work.

So the final answer to all that is simple. No, once you publish a digital document you cannot control it anymore. A trusted friend may show it to a less trusted friend; the latter will make a copy and post it somewhere where everyone in the world can see it.

What can you do? The solution is simple. Keep your photos in your physical possession. Take them, print them at home, and put in albums to show to your friends. Keep the digital originals on your computers; encrypt them if you can. It may be an overkill with 99.999% of photos, but it takes only one breach of security to hurt you.

74 posted on 06/24/2013 12:38:48 PM PDT by Greysard
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To: Greysard
Thank you for that excellent reply. It's a no-brainer that I'll continue to avoid putting personal information online.

The other thing that's creepy is that everyone's a spy, with an embarrassing picture just a click away on someone's smart phone.

I do miss the days of not having to worry about this stuff every minute....to know that there were places where people could be their imperfect selfs.

78 posted on 06/24/2013 12:47:12 PM PDT by grania
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