Dumb question about people stealing pictures

[Deleted]

So everyone on ML is upset that someone (MB) turned out to be some version of a catfish and saved people's pictures (of themselves and their kids) to a photobucket account. I completely get feeling creeped out/violated that someone is holding your picture.

But- realistically, what can be done with that? I was thinking about it and while I guess I'd rather not have someone saving my pictures somewhere, I can't really figure out what harm would come to me if they did. Chances are I would never know they did anything with the pictures, and even if they did something malicious (not sure what?) I don't know how that would be linked to me or actually cause me any harm.

I don't generally post a lot of pictures on here anyway, but I assume once I put something on a public site (like my blog, which I guess actually has a ton of pics anyone here could easily find!) it's fair game if someone wanted to use it. For some reason that doesn't really bother me.

So - not dismissing the betrayal or concerns, I'm curious to understand them. Anyone care to explain or discuss?

[tacom]

given that MB is a poster who has created multiple alter-egos and misrepresented herself (fake name, using someone else's photo, creating entirely new personas), my guess is she could use them to impersonate those people. the baby stories also make me wonder if she somehow wanted to "pass" the kids off as her own -- not sure where, since obviously they would be recognized by GBCNers.

also, if she is the person who previously posted the list of full names + linked FB accounts to the nest, it's conceivable that she may have been collecting photos and info for something along those lines again. either to "out" people on GBCN with info she's been saving or to contact employers/personal contacts to "out" someone's participation on GBCN.

I personally wouldn't want someone misrepresenting herself using my photographs because I'd be worried about my personal and professional reputation if someone recognized my photo and actually thought I was the nutter. I already worry about posting photos on here because we all say inflammatory things from time to time on GBCN that I don't necessarily want my entire network to be aware of.

[Deleted]

Oct 1, 2014 10:31:57 GMT -5 @songforyou said:

Nothing harmful that I can think of can be done with it, I think it's just more the point of feeling like someone you thought you internet "knew" is a fucking creeper. I never post face pictures on forums, and even when we were doing OOTD, I almost always deleted my pictures, I would be annoyed if, even despite my efforts to keep my pictures offline, someone was holding onto them for some weird reason (because the reason would have to be weird). Certainly, that's a the risk you take when posting pictures and I think we all know that, but reeeeaalllyyyy? Storing years worth of photos? It's just not a reasonable expectation, at least I don't think so.

I'm not rational when it comes to my child, so I can't even imagine how violated, vengeful and absolutely pissed I would be about something like that. Off the charts.

Yeah it's definitely fucking weird. I defintitely get feeling upset or betrayed. I guess for me the photo thing would just be icing on the cake. I'd be more upset that someone I'd been talking to for years - like tacom or @songforyou, since you responded in this thread - were not who you said you were, because I think you're cool and we've shared a lot over the years and I'd be really sad if you had been lying to me.

To be clear - everyone is entitled to their own feelings IMO

[Poppy]

Well, there weren't really enough on there of any one person/family for catfishing using their personas, IMO. There were ~25 pages of ~12 pics (I didn't actually count) but there were a ton of boring series of dogs and the like, and I didn't see any large collections of any one person. My guess in this case is that she wanted to save ones that intrigued her, like of posters like v who don't leave pics up? Plus, her MO as montereybride was not one of posting many (any?) pics.


ETA: She didn't seem full-on catfish to me. It seems like she kind of blew it with her original "real" self when she started out on the knot, and people would recognize her picture so she switched to a more anonymous profile. I am sure there was a lot of embellishment that happened but it didn't seem like identity theft.

[genet313]

I'm thinking....photoshop my head onto a naked body and parade that all over the internet for money.    No thanks.  

[sometimesrunner]

Damn. I guess I'm deleting my sig pic and avatar now.

[dr.girlfriend]

I think the concern is either 1.) using / posting the picture elsewhere to misrepresent you, or 2.) using the pic as "evidence" to track you down IRL. If I remember correctly in the past a nestie posted a pic and someone did some reverse image search or something similar to find her IRL name and the name of her law firm?

I know I got friendly with a MM-er recently by PM (who I totally trust and still like, don't take offense, darlin'!) and when I emailed her from my real life email and told her "now you know my real name" she was like, "Yeah, I already knew it..." because I had posted enough over the years that she knew who I was from cruising through my work's website for a different reason. If you have my job, location, and ethnicity I'm pretty easy to peg, which makes me not so comfy. I don't think I have made many Nest-enemies, but you never know.

[raangoli]

Data aggregation is very real, and can be very malicious if used for the wrong purposes. You don't have to be a hacker to figure things out if you connect enough dots. I often wonder how much I've shared or said on here and am paranoid that perhaps I've shared too much.

Feel free to PM me if you've figure out who I am so I can freak out for reals.

[dexteroni]

It's creepy and stalky and invasive. Someone who has been secretly collecting photos of you over the years is probably collecting other information too. And you never know when they'll decide they have enough other info to make your life hell. It's more of a single white female thing than something like stealing bank account numbers.

And you still clearly enjoy giving creepy assholes the benefit of the doubt, lol. Seriously though, what is up with that?

[10nille]

As weird as it was for her to collect photos of nesties/gbcn it crosses the line when she saves photos of children. Something sick about that collection. Also, wth with all the sausage photos??

[tacom]

Oct 1, 2014 11:18:41 GMT -5 dexteroni said:

And you still clearly enjoy giving creepy assholes the benefit of the doubt, lol. Seriously though, what is up with that?

@buckybells the feeling is mutual. I promise I'm not lying.  

[Deleted]

Oct 1, 2014 11:18:41 GMT -5 dexteroni said:

It's creepy and stalky and invasive. Someone who has been secretly collecting photos of you over the years is probably collecting other information too. And you never know when they'll decide they have enough other info to make your life hell. It's more of a single white female thing than something like stealing bank account numbers.

And you still clearly enjoy giving creepy assholes the benefit of the doubt, lol. Seriously though, what is up with that?

I don't mean MB specifically. I am not siding with her and don't know her anyway  I was just curious about the idea of people stealing pictures. I don't think this is the first time someone has expressed concern about this type of thing happen (maybe not to this scale, though).

It's true I'm a terrible judge of character, but I really just meant this one as a discussion topic and curiosity!

[v]

I'm totally putting my head on @songforyou's OOTD photos to update my FB profile a bit.

[v]

Oct 1, 2014 11:42:31 GMT -5 @rennido said:

Why? Why would people feel the need to "take over" other people's identities.

I'm sure soon it will be called a disorder of some kind.

But it really boggles the mind. Who has time to do that? I am firmly in the "ain't nobody got time for that" camp, obviously I'm wrong.
I just don't see the reward. Why do it? Just for the attention?

Why do people do any of the strange things they do?

I'd imagine there's sometimes mental illness involved.  And that some people do it just for funsies/to get a rise out of people.

People do it in real life too.  

www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-woman-who-wasnt-there-the-true-story-of-an-incredible-deception-by-robin-gaby-fisher-and-angelo-j-gugliemo-jr/2012/04/20/gIQAVFMQWT_story.html

[dexteroni]

Oct 1, 2014 11:29:09 GMT -5 @songforyou said:

@buckybells is an eternal optimist.  She gives everyone the benefit of the doubt.  This is not a bad quality.  Sometimes, I wish I could be that way, but I am really jaded, cynical and pretty much an asshole, so it's never going to happen.

I love Bucky, and it's definitely not a bad quality to look for the good. We talked about this a bit yesterday in bucky's post. But when someone has clearly done something to harm someone else, saying "well what's so bad about that?" can come across as callous toward the subject of wrongdoing, at least to me it does. It just kind of seems like it's not the time or the place to get into it when someone's clearly upset, you know?

Maybe it doesn't come across this way to everyone? I know this place can get a little "burn it down!" sometimes, so maybe the people involved appreciate the alternate perspective. I don't know. I hadn't really noticed it until the sexual harassment post, so I don't recall how other instances were received.

[tacom]

This makes more sense now. Lol. I did not read the sexual harassment post.

[Deleted]

Oct 1, 2014 11:51:40 GMT -5 dexteroni said:

Oct 1, 2014 11:29:09 GMT -5 @songforyou said:

@buckybells is an eternal optimist.  She gives everyone the benefit of the doubt.  This is not a bad quality.  Sometimes, I wish I could be that way, but I am really jaded, cynical and pretty much an asshole, so it's never going to happen.

I love Bucky, and it's definitely not a bad quality to look for the good. We talked about this a bit yesterday in bucky's post. But when someone has clearly done something to harm someone else, saying "well what's so bad about that?" can come across as callous toward the subject of wrongdoing, at least to me it does. It just kind of seems like it's not the time or the place to get into it when someone's clearly upset, you know?

Maybe it doesn't come across this way to everyone? I know this place can get a little "burn it down!" sometimes, so maybe the people involved appreciate the alternate perspective. I don't know. I hadn't really noticed it until the sexual harassment post, so I don't recall how other instances were received.

I don't want to keep beating a dead horse, but I really didn't mean the sexual harassment post - at all - to come across as "what's so bad about that?". I really did read the OP differently than apparently a lot of people did, and even then I don't think I ever said what happened wasn't bad. I also revised my initial assumption that it was a misunderstanding when she provided further information and clarification about what happened.

I was trying to counteract all the "OMG he should be fired!" with an explanation of what I felt was likely to happen so she didn't go into work on Monday and get disappointed if/when it wasn't that simple. She asked for advice on what to do, not just empathy about what happened. Apparently my empathy didn't come across very well.

As far as other situations - yes, this place does get very worked up about stuff. I am not a very emotional person and tend to look at things very analytically, so I do sometimes wonder what I'm missing when everyone is outraged and I just don't see it at that level. I'm not going to  challenge someone directly involved in the situation and tell them they are wrong, especially since I think people have a right to their feelings and in this particular example (the photo thing), I can understand being upset anyway, just not sure about the practical aspect of what can actually happen. 

[dexteroni]

Oct 1, 2014 12:21:30 GMT -5 @buckybells said:

I am not a very emotional person and tend to look at things very analytically, so I do sometimes wonder what I'm missing when everyone is outraged and I just don't see it at that level.

I do think that may be what it comes down to. When people are posting for support, or if an offense was particularly egregious, throwing in some "well what if..." type of analysis may not always be appropriate. I'm not saying you do that all the time, of course. And I do think some people appreciate the varying perspectives, especially when they're trying to figure out the best course of action.

I also didn't mean to take this post in another direction. Sorry if it detracted from your original question!