Facebook and invasion of privacy


Photographer: Michael Culhane

Update: Facebook has acted upon the complaint and the image has now been removed from that group's page.

I find Facebook extremely irritating. I am on it because I want to network and also because I can keep in touch more easily with my family and close friends - I can keep track of how beautiful my little god daughter is getting everyday, thanks to the lovely photos her mum posts.
But those behind Facebook are extremely hypocritical and censor photos which are actually beautiful - such as that of a breastfeeding mother - yet allow groups which are extremely crass, like the  British Chavs Exposed group, whose comments are sexist and racist. Generally the existence of such trash does not worry me too much, I am personally not involved,  but yesterday I discovered that these people had stolen a photo of me taken by David J. Green from my portfolio, which is online, and put it up calling me 'Chavette of the Day'. I am definitely not a chav. I did not welcome the attention and found the comments gross and humiliating, not to say patronising - the usual thing 'if I can look like that at her age'...Honestly 'looking like that' is the result of being a regular at the gym, it's not rocket science, anyone can do it. Plus the usual offensive remarks on age. Oh the ageist and sexist remarks, they were unpleasant to read.
I asked in vain for the photo to be removed. They laughed it off and maintained they had a right to use any image they wanted. I reported the group for abusive behaviour. Nothing. I asked David to issue a DMCA notice, which he has done.
What most irritated me was that according to these people, I should not have done the photo shoot if I did not want the images to be posted because once they are on the internet they belong to everyone. No way. There is something called copyright infringement. The image was stolen, no one ever asked David or even me whether they could use it, it was not acknowledged. You can see it on their page as a low-res, highly pixellated image. David knows better than producing such low quality photography.
There is nothing wrong with the image, so I am happy to post it here. Note the name of the photographer on the right. I am posting the image with permission. What I object to is that it was posted on a page I find vulgar and without anyone's permission.

Photographer: David J. Green Model: myself

I am wearing lingerie, it was a lingerie shoot - I needed that picture in my portfolio in order to put myself forward for lingerie catalogue shoots, which I have done. The photo was taken in 2010. I have not changed very much since then, only my hair is much longer.
To me this episode is indicative of a gross invasion of privacy. The group owners are arrogant and ill mannered.
As a result of that picture being there, I got loads of friend requests from people I would never bother to interact with. If you are one of those people be aware that not only have I deleted your friend request but have also marked it as spam.

Flash Fashion 2014: my hair is being braided by hair accessory designer Vera Black




Comments

  1. Something really needs to be done to get the word out that not everything on the internet is public domain.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I had to look up "chav" and "chavette." You learn something new every day! No, you're definitely not a chavette, and I'm glad Facebook deleted that photo. They should delete the group for abusive behavior and copyright infringement!

    ReplyDelete

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