How Private is Your Online Photo Service?

A recent article in the Washington Post entitled Online Photos Not as Private As District Mother Assumed revealed that a mother who had put pictures of her small children skinny dipping up on the online service Flikr, and marked them "private" so she could share them with her parents, suddenly discovered they had been accessed by someone else at least 20 times. Flickr is investigating how this could have happened. While one should have a reasonable expectation that when a service like this makes a "privacy" service an option they should be able to enforce it, there is always the danger that someone else might take a digital peek. Just as you warn your kids to be careful what they put up online, make sure you also heed your own advice avoiding the possible snare of digital permanence. (The link from this article is to the Washington Post that you can read for free, but you'll have to register.)