How safe is photo sharing? 

There has been a corresponding increase in the number and popularity of

publicly hosted Web sites for sharing digital photos. But is it safe to share

personal photos ? After all, personal photos contain personal information about

you and your family, your interests and hobbies.

Safety in this context means that the personal information, which can be

identified and extracted from these photos, is both private and secure.

Private means that access to the information can be restricted to the use

of a particular person or group of people. The owner of the information

should control who has access to it.

Secure means free from danger and risk of loss, i.e., making sure that the

bad guys out there cannot access your information.

A photo-sharing Web site lets members upload and annotate photos that are

posted on its site.Some sites offer these services for free, while others charge

a fee, sometimes only for additional storage. In general, these sites make

money by charging for prints, cards, and gifts such as calendars or coffee

mugs imprinted with the photos. Members can share their photos by sending

friends and family the URL of their photo site. Sometimes, visitors must enter

a username and password in order to view your pictures. Sometimes, this

information is embedded in the URL. As more people post their pictures online,

others are finding ways to exploit them.