Danielle Smith, who lives in Missouri, posted a family portrait, herself, her husband and their two children with, on a few different social networking sites. There are two weeks, a friend of Danielle driving if Prague when he spotted a picture of the Smiths in the window of a grocery store. The image has been converted into advertising. The owner of the store said that the image of the Internet, and he assumed it was computer generated. When he learned that he was a real image of a real family, he removed the billboard. The Smiths and the photographer who took the picture, had not authorized the use of the image. The next time Smith published a photo on the Internet, she says she will reduce the resolution or add an electronic watermark.
This curious incident serves as a reminder that once pictures or information published on a social networking site, it is impossible to predict where they might end up or who could access it. If you are concerned about the protection of your privacy when using social networking sites, you might be interested in our Facebook Identity Theft Protection Guide or our MySpace Identity Theft Protection Guide. Or, for information on services that can help protect your identity, visit our opinions identity theft protection and comparison.