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 can not 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