NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] "Shagging" on the USC Roof: Privacy Lessons for Participants, Photographer, and Us
"Shagging" on the USC Roof: Privacy Lessons
for Participants, Photographer, and Us
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000838.html
Greetings. By now you've probably heard the story of the USC Frat Boy
and his obviously willing female companion, who decided to burn a few
calories via intimate calisthenics at the edge of a high USC building
roof a few days ago:
( http://j.mp/g6F9wf ["imgur" - Photos - Warning: Only Minimally Censored] )
To say that various parties around USC are upset about this situation
would be the understatement of the academic year.
The privacy lessons for the involved couple seem obvious enough. The
privacy lessons for the photographer -- and the rest of us -- are
worth a bit of discussion.
A video interview with the (so far) anonymous photo fan surfaced
today -- complete with disguised voice and his head carefully positioned
beyond the visible video frame ( http://j.mp/gkaG0d [ATVN] ).
This mystery shutterbug -- a student at USC himself -- seems to
display the tiniest bit of remorse for how this situation has
exploded. He swears that he never intended for the photos to go
public, and expresses surprise that somehow, someone managed to copy
the photos from what he thought was a limited access Web photo
account -- that he apparently only intended to share with a few friends.
Of course, we all know that the instant he enabled access to those
photos for anyone other than himself, he lost all effective control
over the images. Even someone without download privileges for the
photos could have easily captured them directly from nearly any screen
on which they were so much as momentarily displayed.
Virtually any time you share anything on the Internet, you are
implicitly trusting all other involved parties not to abuse the
associated files and data.
This doesn't mean that you shouldn't share. Far from it. But it does
suggest that especially when dealing with any information that could
be considered at all sensitive, it's up to the sharing party to very
carefully choose with whom they are sharing. Don't blame the Web
service if your "sharing buddies" turn out not to be trustworthy after
all.
As for our friend the USC student with the SLR camera, what can we say
about his protestations of innocence?
Should we consider his photo posting behavior to represent merely
ignorance of the potential ramifications? Perhaps. But since he
apparently decided to share the photos in the first place, his
"I didn't mean it!" claims are, shall we say, not 100% convincing.
And by the way, the attempts to shield his identity, after his photos
served to immediately identify the USC student on the roof, represent
yet another privacy lesson.
To wit: Don't depend on lame vocal "disguises" to protect your
identity in public interviews. For example, what happens if one
throws a bit of processing at the audio of that interview, and
approximates a correction for the crude pitch change obfuscation
method employed?
Answer: This audio file: http://j.mp/fE9Lu2 (Lauren's Blog)
(MP3 / ~2.3 MBytes).
Remember, as Austin Powers might say, "On the Internet, everybody
might see those photos you snagged of the couple who shagged.
Yeah, yeah, baby!"
Who ever said that privacy issues are boring?
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Google Buzz: http://j.mp/laurenbuzz
Quora: http://www.quora.com/Lauren-Weinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com