Beware

Your online photos might not be as safe as you think!!!

Like many of us, the Smith family sent a photo of themselves to family and friends as a Christmas card, and posted the image on their blog and a few social networking websites. Who hasn’t?!

Last month, a family friend from Prague came upon the smiling faces of the Smith family promoting a grocery delivery service! He snapped a couple of photos and sent it to the Smiths. Not surprising, they were flabbergasted!!

Not only had the Smiths not authorised such a thing, they had no idea! “Interesting. Bizarre. Flattering, I suppose. But quite creepy” wrote Mrs. Smith upon finding out!

The owner of the Grazie store in Prague, admitted that he had found the photo online. He said he thought it was computer-generated. When told it was a real photo – of a real family – he promised to remove it.

Since, Mrs Smith has received 180,000 hits to her website, saying that next time she posts a family photo on the internet, she will lower the resolution or add an electronic watermark to make it harder to reproduce!! Good advise!