Protecting Photo Privacy Possibilities

Notes by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC.

Also covered in WBTV's segment, Protecting Your Cyberturf

We have told you before to be careful when you post videos and pictures of yourself and kids online.

We even shared with you a tragic cyberstalking and cyberidentity case where a person stole pictures of another person, and used the photos to create a fake persona.

You can use different privacy settings to try to protect your photos but sometimes online services have glitches and strangers can see your videos and photos. WBTV’s Cyber Expert, Theresa Payton, offers some easy tips you might want to consider before you upload those photos.

3 EASY TIPS:

1. Get familiar with the photo or social networking site's options for security and privacy. Pick the options that work best for you.

2. Before you post, you can copyright your photos so people can see the photo but the main area has a copyright plastered on it. This might deter people from reusing it. There are some free or low cost services you can use to do this.

3. Watermark - it works a lot like the watermarks on your money in your wallet. There are some low cost options out there that you can try that will watermark your photos, just like photo studios do when they send you "proofs". Some software programs used for digital photo editing, like Photoshop, offer this feature in the photo editing process.

If you are very concerned about photos getting into the wrong hands, then your best bet is the old fashioned way, have them printed and share them.

WEB RESOURCES:

For the latest in photo tips and how to protect your digital images, you can get tips and advice at Popular Photo Magazine’s website at: http://www.popphoto.com/

For more information on how to select software to protect your photos before you post them, try Digital Cameras at About.com:

http://cameras.about.com/od/photoeditingtips/a/How-To-Watermark-Your-Photos.htm

To see the most recent example of a Name Fail, this week's word of the week, look at the media gaffes where they said "Obama" when they meant to say "Osama" at Mashable's link: http://mashable.com/2011/05/02/osama-obama-gaffes/

For tips and resources on how to teach your kids how to pick and choose what photos are safe to post and how to protect them, check out the latest advice at www.YourSphere.com