So, the conventional wisdom is that the internet is forever and privacy needs to be preciously guarded. Personally, I keep my facebook bland and locked down and am fairly discreet elsewhere. But some people are more open. One of my former friends has taken a rather different approach, and I’m trying to decide (as an academic exercise, I’m no longer in touch with this person) whether that choice is 1.) Different but not substantially less wise or 2.) Just plain nuts.
The person in question is a member of a fetish social networking site*. Her profile contains a list of her fetishes (she is apparently rather adventurous) and nude pictures. The profile is not google indexed and is under a pseudonym.
My first reaction on seeing it was “wow, this is really going to come back to bite her when she’s out of school.” But one could argue that the internet is so large that even this sort of information, posted on an out of the way site, isn’t all that dangerous. What do people think?
*I’d signed on the site because i know a few people on it and wanted to know what it was. I don’t have a profile there.
My gut feeling is that if she is recognizable in those photos, and they stay put in that site for an undetermined period of time, at some point there are reasonably good chances that it will come back to bite her in the butt.
I’ve posted nude photos online (and on this very board).
I am not planning to run for public office. It’s almost certain that these pics will resurface in the future. I don’t really see any consequences other than more strangers knowing what I look like naked.
That’s really the question, I suppose. Assuming a person has no desire to become a public figure and, to the extent this is meaningful at the age of 18-19, has decided to structure their romantic life in such a way that this conduct is unobjectionable. What are the likely harms of this act? It bars certain semipublic professions (teaching perhaps), but other than that?
Another thing to consider is that technology marchs on. In 2010 if you want to do an online search for somebody you have to have a name. But according to some ads I’ve seen, there are already programs that can listen to a song and do a search for it. I’d be willing to be that within ten years there will be programs that can do a search for images using facial recognition. Scan in a picture of somebody’s face and you’ll be able to google every online image of that person.
I think you made a typo and meant to say “it’s almost certain that these pics WON’T resurface in the future”, but anyway yeah that’s pretty much how I feel. I still wouldn’t post a nude with my face because I’m a cautious person but for the vast majority of people it probably isn’t that big a big deal whether there are nude photos of them online (with face or not). There’s a small subset of careers where this kind of thing could be potentially devastating, like politician or moral crusader. But in the vast majority of cases the greatest harm they could cause is some social embarrassment. Meh.
Hardcore porn, on the other hand, might be a little more damaging. But even that shouldn’t really ruin a person’s life.
The pic is simply a photo of her at a Halloween party dressed in a pirate hat, and labled “a drunken pirate”. No alcohol is visible in the pic, and she is 25 years old.
But the university said the photo sets a bad example for a teacher, refused to grant her diploma, and ruined her career before it even started.
The same article also states (but with no evidence) that facial recognition software is improving to the point that it will soon be possible to google faces
Further, I agree with Dan Savage. We’re fast approaching an age where some kind of incriminating material will be available on anybody thanks to the internet.
Besides which, it’s years too late to worry now. Even if I deleted the pics, others have surely downloaded them.
I’m glad your career path is safe Mr. ‘I put on my robe and wizard hat’ but most people have long term goals that aren’t going to be helped by having nude/fetish pictures online. No matter how many people are doing it there are a lot more that aren’t and if your prospective employer does a thorough search the ones without porn/nude pics are going to be favored over the ones with.
Unless your career is in porn, of course. If that’s the case just go crazy I guess.
There has to be millions of anonymous nude photos on the internet. If it’s not posted on her personal website, or if there’s no revealing information in the picture itself, then how could they possibly even find the photo, let alone prove it is her?
I think if a person puts recognizable nude photos on the net, then that person has to assume they will be see by people she knows. Whether it’s an anonymous person forwarding it her mom, or 10 years from now, when her kid gets teased at school ('your mom likes scat playyyy"). If a person decides that she doesn’t care if they resurface, fine, but if you put something on the web you have to be prepared for at least the possibility that it will resurface.
A few years ago, when I had penile and nipple piercings (I had steel barbells through my frenulum and in both nips), I joined a body-mod/piercing/tattoo site called BMezine.com (“Body Modification E-zine”).
There I posted nude pics of myself, showing my jewelry. No face shots, though, and I used an alias. Frankly, I neither regret doing it (neither the piercings themselves nor posting the photos), nor do I worry or care that someone will find them. I think I look pretty damn good naked.
Epilogue: I don’t have any metal anymore, but still have my tattoos, of course, and I still love 'em.
j/k