4 ms·

Don't share pictures of your kids online

47 points by iafrikan 7y ago

devoply 7y ago
Don't share pictures online. If you have to, send them via e-mail. Host your e-mail using a private provider. Make your family do the same.
- mysterydip 7y ago
  The problem is there is so much inertia to overcome with "free" email and photo hosting that I could talk 'til I'm blue in the face to family and friends and they just ignore it.
  - jjeaff 7y ago
    And hosting your own email has been effectively ruined by spammers and overzealous spam filtering. Running your own email server is technical and time consuming at least at first.
yxz 7y ago
What can us kids do to stop this? As sitting down and talking doesn't work. I'd rather not have people knowing when I'm not home.
- myself248 7y ago
  Hide in the bushes and take pictures of your parents. Send them to your friends. If told to stop, ask your parents how they define the terms "double standard" and "leading by example". Not sure if I'm joking...
  - yxz 7y ago
    Oh my god. This is a great idea. Thanks!
    - humanrebar 7y ago
      It's really not.... You're better off finding adults your parents respect and ask them to help you talk about all this with them.
mceachen 7y ago
I'd suggest going an extra step: keep the imagery of you and your family out of the cloud altogether. Spending a decade in adtech, ML, and behavior targeting scared the willies out of me, and I'm building something for my family to use: https://blog.photostructure.com/introducing-photostructure/ https://blog.photostructure.com/introducing-photostructure/
- aeternus 7y ago
  I'm not sure that images should be your largest concern. Messaging apps and the sites you visit online are much richer sources of data for adtech and ML.
  - mceachen 7y ago
    I agree that messaging apps (including gmail) are used to enrich the targeting cloud for a given user, but many use a secure-ish app by default (iMessage). Also, if you use an adblocker (like ublock origin), those should mostly muzzle pixel beacons. The metadata you can pull from a series of images is remarkable. Did you know that most smartphones from the last 7 years will encode not just GPS coordinates, but the compass heading of the lens? Just from that stream, you know (most likely) where the person lives, works, and spends time. Throw in face detection and you know who else lives at your home, and who your coworkers are. It's a metadata treasure chest.
    - jjeaff 7y ago
      Plus, with as high resolution as cameras are now, you could even identify some of the products and brands in their house, estimate taste and income based on interior finishes and visible products. Is that birthday cake sitting on a granite countertop? Expensive furniture or cheap? KitchenAid mixer in the background? Oh look, a book shelf in the background, lookup all those titles. Bill O'Reilly book, must be conservative. Rachel Maddow books, liberal.... There really is a ton that can be gleaned from just random photos.
  - anbop 7y ago
    Advance image processing AI by 1000x (which could happen in 10 years) and the images are much more dangerous.
HNLurker2 7y ago
Yeah don't :=)

47 points by iafrikan 7y ago

Don't share pictures online. If you have to, send them via e-mail. Host your e-mail using a private provider. Make your family do the same.

mysterydip 7y ago
The problem is there is so much inertia to overcome with "free" email and photo hosting that I could talk 'til I'm blue in the face to family and friends and they just ignore it.
- jjeaff 7y ago
  And hosting your own email has been effectively ruined by spammers and overzealous spam filtering. Running your own email server is technical and time consuming at least at first.

yxz 7y ago

What can us kids do to stop this? As sitting down and talking doesn't work. I'd rather not have people knowing when I'm not home.

myself248 7y ago
Hide in the bushes and take pictures of your parents. Send them to your friends. If told to stop, ask your parents how they define the terms "double standard" and "leading by example". Not sure if I'm joking...
- yxz 7y ago
  Oh my god. This is a great idea. Thanks!
  - humanrebar 7y ago
    It's really not.... You're better off finding adults your parents respect and ask them to help you talk about all this with them.

mceachen 7y ago

I'd suggest going an extra step: keep the imagery of you and your family out of the cloud altogether. Spending a decade in adtech, ML, and behavior targeting scared the willies out of me, and I'm building something for my family to use: https://blog.photostructure.com/introducing-photostructure/ https://blog.photostructure.com/introducing-photostructure/

aeternus 7y ago
I'm not sure that images should be your largest concern. Messaging apps and the sites you visit online are much richer sources of data for adtech and ML.
- mceachen 7y ago
  I agree that messaging apps (including gmail) are used to enrich the targeting cloud for a given user, but many use a secure-ish app by default (iMessage). Also, if you use an adblocker (like ublock origin), those should mostly muzzle pixel beacons. The metadata you can pull from a series of images is remarkable. Did you know that most smartphones from the last 7 years will encode not just GPS coordinates, but the compass heading of the lens? Just from that stream, you know (most likely) where the person lives, works, and spends time. Throw in face detection and you know who else lives at your home, and who your coworkers are. It's a metadata treasure chest.
  - jjeaff 7y ago
    Plus, with as high resolution as cameras are now, you could even identify some of the products and brands in their house, estimate taste and income based on interior finishes and visible products. Is that birthday cake sitting on a granite countertop? Expensive furniture or cheap? KitchenAid mixer in the background? Oh look, a book shelf in the background, lookup all those titles. Bill O'Reilly book, must be conservative. Rachel Maddow books, liberal.... There really is a ton that can be gleaned from just random photos.
- anbop 7y ago
  Advance image processing AI by 1000x (which could happen in 10 years) and the images are much more dangerous.

HNLurker2 7y ago

Yeah don't :=)