September 27, 2007

Has the world gone mad?

I did change all the privacy settings on my Flickr photos. It was a kneejerk reaction, but I think it was appropriate. I need to think about this one. X thinks there is not anything to worry about and he is fine with the photos being public. Particularly when I told him I normally do not have tags and am careful about photos that show too much of the front of our house and the like. At first, I was upset that my blog has blown up a bit because the photos are not showing here any longer. I tried to fiddle with the code, then realized "What difference does it make?" Meaning, I am willing to show photos on my blog which is also public. So now, the entire "Why am I even Blogging?" topic is rearing its ugly noggin. I do not feel my children are in danger, but I need to carefully examine whether I am being naive about it. After all, I know folks who will not even let their child's photo be published in their local newspaper. However, I still feel the greatest danger to a child is someone close to them - not some random stranger.

Would I be upset that someone took my child's photo and used it for other purposes? Hell yes. But I would also be upset if someone was leering at my child in a public setting - say in a park or at the pool.

Bah. Now I am starting to ramble and I do not know what the hell I am saying except that I need to think about this.

9 comments:

stephanie said...

I think it is totally understandable to privatize your kids' photos. No matter how unlikely it may be to result in any danger, if that stuff is out there and public, then someone may find it. I think it's worth the peace of mind.

I just added you as a contact to my Flickr page. It's pretty lame... I only have a couple of photos up there at the moment, because I tend to use Google more than Flickr for photos.

Monkey McWearingChaps said...

If you decide to de-privatise, I'd go with copyrighting your photos, putting the right click protection on them so people can't download the full size (they'd have to do a screen grab to evade it) and registering them. That way if they end up on Orkut etc., you can slap the offender, and potentially Google, on the face with a copyright violation. It's not that much money to do all of this but it has serious consequences for the person who tries to f*ck with you. And why yes, I will definitely investigate how to go about all of this if you like.

You have friends who like hearing what you have to say. I started reading this blog because we had a lot in common-our career paths etc.. I would be sad if I couldn't read your rants anymore.

Shalini said...

I made all my pics private after reading your last post-thank you so much for writing it! I had no idea any of this was going on and I am glad to be informed now.

And please add me as a contact on flickr (bdeboer). We have to continue to watch the demi-desis grow!

Dee said...

I've been giving this a lot of thought myself. I hate going private because Flickr is the best way for me to share pics with all of my family members who are too far away to visit often. I'm still debating, but I'm getting closer and closer to doing it. I may just set up a generic account (like Zoot) for family members to use so they don't all have to sign up. I just find it so sad that there are people out there with nothing better to do than steal pictures and post them on fake sites. At least if nothing else, it has me really thinking a lot more about internet privacy. I'm totally rambling now. Ugh.

girlfiend said...

I stopped connecting my blog pictures to flickr a while back because I didn't want people referring to it in a place where family reads comments. Instead I upload pictures from my desktop and save them to the server.

I did make all my flickr pics private. I find the whole thing way too creepy not to. In the past I'd initially post them as public and change them to private in a week or so. I may revert back to that system when the ick factor wears off.

Bethany said...

Hey! I was a reader of yours back at the first of the year. I gave birth to my own little offspring in April, and have lagged sorely behind on blogs. I just revisited yours to see if you'd had your lil' one yet...and your pics are private! I swear I'm not a crazy stalker...just would like to see pics of your adorable kids. :-) my email is bethy_blu2@yahoo.com if you would allow me access! Thanks!

A. Nonny Mouse said...

I agree with everyone else. 1) I like your blog, please don't quit. 2) I do what girlfiend does, I load my pictures to Blogger from my desktop. My Flickr account doesn't get updated very often, mostly because I am unwilling to pay for it, and unable to decide what pictures get deleted.

Lisa said...

Thanks for blogging about this. I had no idea this was going on.

Moderndayhermit said...

I hope you don't stop blogging, that would put a big cramp in my blogroll. But, I hope you do what makes you feel comfortable.

Some folks are such losers.