Privacy Issues
Privacy has become one of the biggest issues facing online picture galleries. Users often upload personal information. There is a growing concern that this data is no longer being kept confidential.
The nature of some of these sites means that the images being posted will be made public. Sometimes the user is able to customise their settings so that only certain people can access these images. However there is still a number of privacy concerns. One of them is geotagging. This is when the users location is saved when they upload an image. This is seen by some as being invasive.
There can also be issues with the privacy agreements of some online gallery sites. Sometimes these agreements demand that the user allow themselves to be tracked. Other times they state that the site owns all the data uploaded by the user.
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p>The most recent scandal involving these types of site was the Cambridge Analytica data collection story. This involved the company taking the information of social media users and selling it on. This was then used to create user specific ads to influence their political opinion. The high scale level with which this practice was done has highlighted how widespread an issue privacy is.
There are a number of things that users of online galleries can do to protect themselves. The first thing is to carefully read the privacy policy of a particular site carefully. This will tell them who owns the data that is uploaded. A user should also log out when they are done to make sure they are not hacked.
One popular source of protection is to encrypt certain devices. This can include installing antivirus software and using more complex passwords. Keeping up to date on any developments on this issue is also a useful tip.