Privacy

The Smiths, a family in Missouri got a surprised when a friend emailed them a picture they took of a billboard in the Czech Republic. The photo was used to advertise a grocery stores delivery service in Prague, over a thousand miles away. The shop owner has since promised to remove the image and has emailed the Smiths an apology. The wife and mother in the photo, Danielle Smith, was surprised and had no idea the picture could be used this way. She still plans to post images of her family but not at such a high resolution.

I still find it a little shocking that people don't realize any image displayed in a internet browser can be taken and used by anyone viewing it, this goes with dating sites as well. This incident of misuse wasn't bad but you can never know what someone will do with your images (putting your head on someone else's body for example). Posting pictures on the internet is here to stay, so my advice is, don't post photos of yourself on the internet that you don't want absolutely everyone to see. Just assume it is in the public domain. Once posted, those photos of embarrassing poses, falls, etc.. always seem to find there way to your friends, co-workers, potential employers, etc... at the most inopportune times.

For the full scoop, read The Guardian.

There have been a few articles lately regarding who owns all the user profile information and communications that people do on social networks and online dating sites. It really came to the forefront in the news when Facebook updated their Terms of Use a few weeks ago that readdressed the ownership issue. Basically Facebook wanted almost complete control of all user generated content.

irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sub-license) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), ...

Many Facebook users complained about these new terms and with all the media attention it was getting, Facebook has rewritten their Terms Of Use and has posted a draft copy. They are even allowing users to comment and vote on the new proposed Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities For Users. This is a surprising move that should make many Facebook users happy.

In the online dating world, dating sites have Terms of Service that can vary wildly. Some are similar to Facebook's old terms and some to the new terms of use. The one thing with dating sites you may wonder about is how long do they keep all this information for and what they do with it. With most of the popular dating sites they have strict privacy policies about who may see what information. As far as with how long the information is kept, it is all over the map. Dating sites like eHarmony doesn't delete your information from their database. With eHarmony's 200 plus questionnaire, this is a good thing as if you ever need to return to the site, your information will still be available to you when you reactivate your account. The flip side of this for example, is Plenty Of Fish. If your account is inactive for 6 months to a year then your account will be deleted. Not a big deal if you are a returning user as it only takes less than 5 minutes to fill out any required information for the profile.

For more information on the Facebook new terms of use, read PC World. To better understand the life of your online dating profile on many of the popular dating sites, read ComputerWorld.

As with other countries, online dating and social networking has become popular in Japan. What is different in Japan is people still have a fixation with anonymity. As example, on average, the Japanese much rather upload video and pictures of their pets to YouTube, than media where they are the star. YouTube even:

has tried to convince the Japanese to loosen up, running events in Tokyo in which girls in miniskirts roam the streets with giant picture frames and video cameras, soliciting pedestrians to frame themselves and record a clip for the site.

In the end this campaign didn't work and, YouTube has since switch to promoting of uploading images of pets.

Match.com has been operating in Japan since 2004. They have added a number of different features to tailor the dating experience so it will suit their Japanese members (see story). These features include identity certification, income verification and blood type. Match.com's Japan president, Katsu Kuwano has stated:

When we did research on Japanese consumers, we found that the No. 1 reason for not using online dating is that they don't know if people are real or not.

Most of Match.com's advertising in Japan is geared towards Japanese women with marriage in mind. Match.com has timed the larger campaigns during national holidays. Still, only about 40% of woman who pay for a membership on Match.com post a picture of themselves. Just like in North America, men in Japan are much less likely to initiate communication with these profiles without pictures. Match.com feels their best bet for generating more members is to be identified with the konkatsu movement in which singles actively seek out marriage, instead of relying on their parents to find a partner.

For the full story visit the The Sydney Morning Herald.

To find out more about Match.com, please read our review.

Young people (and some older ones as well) need to remember that whatever you post on the internet will then be available forever. It doesn't matter if it is a text message, a picture or a video, it most likely will be replicated on other websites. Sites like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook are extremely popular and some postings on these sites have ended up haunting people. More and more, employers, police and institutions are using these sites to see how people they are interested in, are behaving. A few court cases have even used pictures from these social networking sites as evidence in criminal court. You of course also have to watch out for your camera happy friends who like to post pictures on the internet. You may not have posted it but sites like Facebook still let you link pictures of people with their member accounts.

Just remember posting a picture of yourself doing something funny may seem like a great idea now but, will it still be funny in 5 or 10 years when you are trying to get hired for an important job?

For more insight on your privacy and internet posting, plus examples of legal cases where pictures from the internet are used, check out Canada.com.