Don't Get Blackmailed: Protect The Images You Share Online Now

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Instant photo sharing is and so ubiquitous today, it'due south easy to forget that it was alien to us just a few decades ago.

Earlier the advent of the internet, sharing photos was a thing of shooting pic, getting the movie developed, and then physically showing the resulting prints to your friends. Videophones were everywhere in scientific discipline fiction, but the thought of talking via video was every bit futuristic equally owning a flying car.

Even in the 90s, images on the internet were ho-hum to load over dial-up. Cell phones were few and far between, and about people didn't have a camera or a connexion to the internet. Today, more photos are taken every two minutes so were taken in the entire 19th century, and more 500 one thousand thousand photos are uploaded to the Internet and shared every twenty-four hour period.

With this new technology comes some privacy drawbacks, and nosotros're still a long way from the utopian digital future predicted on the sci-fi serial of yesteryear. If your photos fall into the wrong easily, they could be used confronting you, or current of air up beingness used for undesirable purposes.

One in ten hiring managers admits to rejecting applicants, due to 'inappropriate' use of social media. Some people may post images online that they later regret sharing, while others run the adventure of having unflattering or embarrassing images of them posted without their permission. Even if you lot share photos willingly, you could nevertheless exist giving away more than data than you realize.

What does it take to proceed your images safety online?

While swearing off photo sharing altogether may piece of work, information technology's not necessary to cut yourself off from modern technology in order to protect your privacy — you merely need to know how to employ it safely. Follow the guide beneath, and you lot'll be able to keep sharing your snaps while safeguarding your privacy online.

How to keep personal photos private infographic
How to keep personal photos individual

Transcript: Keeping Your Personal Photos Private

Smartphones and social media have fabricated it piece of cake to share snapshots of your life with friends and family. Sometimes, we even share our photos with total strangers. But don't permit the scare stories put you off. With just a few steps, you can still upload and tag your photos whilst remaining in command of who can meet what.

The Country of Sharing

Pictures are the nearly popular content shared on social media.

  • Pictures – 43% take shared within the past month
  • Opinions – 26% accept shared within the past month
  • Status update – 26% have shared within the past calendar month
  • Links to articles – 26% take shared within the past month

Based on figures from September 2013

Then it'south no wonder the numbers effectually photo sharing online are staggering.

On Facebook:

  • 32 billion monthly active users
  • 350 million photos posted daily

On Twitter:

  • 271 one thousand thousand monthly active users
  • 180 1000000* photos posted daily

On Instagram:

  • 200 million monthly agile users
  • 60 million photos posted daily

On Flickr:

  • 92 1000000 monthly active users
  • 1 million photos posted daily

And here are some staggering statistics about the style nosotros share our photos:

  • 54% of internet users post photos or videos they have themselves. (Creators)
  • 47% of internet users re-post photos or videos they encounter online. (Sharers)
  • 62% of all internet users in the United states of america have done at least i of the in a higher place.
  • eleven% of employees have had embarrassing photos taken at work events uploaded to social media.
  • 64% of Hr officers have rejected applicants based on their use of social media.
  • 36% of people strongly dislike people who share as well much information online.
  • 27% of Facebook users strongly dislike other people seeing their individual posts.
  • 19% of teenagers have posted photos, videos, updates and comments that they've later on regretted sharing.

Your Guide to Going Private

The key to protecting your photos online is to limit your exposure by rethinking who you allow to view your photos.

Facebook

Facebook tends to encourage open sharing. However, yous can limit those who can view your individual snaps by post-obit these steps:

  1. Upload a new photo past clicking Add together Photos/Video at the summit of your newsfeed.
  2. Click on Upload Photos/Video and select a photo to share. This will appear every bit a status update.
  3. To command who y'all want to view the paradigm, on the bottom right, select the default Friends.
  4. Select More Options. This will requite you a choice of audiences. If there are certain people you do or don't want to encounter the photograph, select
  5. Insert the names of your Facebook friends who you want to share the image with, or censor the paradigm from.

To make an anthology private:

  1. From your profile page, select Photos.
  2. Select Albums to view your existing photos.
  3. Select the sharing choice you would like to use. The same privacy setting will at present be applied to the entire anthology.

Equally above, cull Custom to narrow your sharing downwardly to a select few.

Twitter

Your Twitter account is public by default. To brand your photos private, you'll likewise need to make your tweets individual.

  1. Log in to your account. Click the Settings and help icon in the top right and select Settings.
  2. Under Security and Privacy, check Protect my Tweets.
  3. Scroll down and press Save changes.

Instagram

Instagram tin advise your photo to others based on their followers and similar photos they've liked. If yous'd rather have more control over who can see your snaps, yous must become individual.

  1. Go to your Profile by selecting the icon at the bottom right.
  2. Select Edit Your Contour.
  3. Plough on Posts are Individual by sliding right.
  4. Save your changes by selecting
  5. Instagram will enquire you for confirmation. Select Yes, I'm sure.

Flickr

Flickr can exist a slap-up identify to share your photography, but if you're taking personal snaps, consider changing your privacy settings.

  1. Log in to your account and select an prototype from your photostream.
  2. The photo'due south privacy details will be shown at the bottom right-manus corner.
  3. Under Viewing this photograph, select Private if y'all want no ane else to view the photo. Otherwise, select between Friends, Family unit or Friends & Family.
  4. If selecting Friends and/or Family unit, check who you accept listed. Get to People on the meridian dashboard and click List.
  5. Change relationship settings as necessary.

When information technology comes to digital photos, it's all too piece of cake to download, copy and repost.

IOur final slice of advice is simple: If in dubiety, but don't upload it.

Sources

  • Company – near.twitter.com
  • Social Media Monitoring – weblog.ltutech.com
  • Facebook & Your Privacy – consumerreports.org
  • Internet.org – A Focus on Efficiency – fbcdn-dragon-a.akamaihd.cyberspace
  • 64% of Recruiters Take Rejected an Applicant Afterwards Viewing Their Social Media Profile – hrreview.co.uk
  • Social Media Has Eroded Workplace Privacy – hrmagazine.co.uk
  • Printing: Our Story – instagram.com
  • Bulk (71%) of Global Cyberspace Users "Share" on Social Media Sites – ipsos-na.com
  • Company Info: Our Mission – newsroom.fb.com
  • Focusing on Efficiency – newsroom.fb.com
  • Photograph and Video Sharing Grow Online – pewinternet.org
  • 6 New Facts Well-nigh Facebook – pewresearch.org
  • Function 3: Reputation Management on Social Media – pewinternet.org
  • Flickr At ten: 1M Photos Shared Per Mean solar day, 170% Increase Since Making 1TB Free – techcrunch.com
  • Twitter's IPO Filing: Ix Scintillating Things We've Learned – theguardian.com

*Figures for Twitter were unavailable. This effigy uses the rate of 500m tweets per day x 36% of tweets that comprise an image.

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