Some photos you prefer to keep private. You hear all too often that for whatever reason personally spicy photos are being leaked on the internet. Here we explain how you can reduce the chance of this happening to you.
Of course, the best way to make sure things like this don't end up on the internet against your will is to just not take such pictures. But maybe it's too late for that, or you just want the freedom to do what you want. Here are some things to keep in mind. Also read: How to safely store those sexy selfies in the cloud.
Sync and Accidents
It is very handy that these days with Mac OS X, iOS, Windows, Windows Phone and Android you can sync your files via the cloud with all kinds of different services and devices. However, it is less pleasant if a photo that you would like to keep private suddenly appears as a screen saver or Live tile on the family computer.
Therefore, you should make sure to save such photos in a folder that will not be synced. And before you hand someone your phone to look at your vacation photos, make sure your spicy photos aren't in the camera roll.
There are many apps available that protect your sensitive photos in different ways. Some put these photos in a secure vault or folder that doesn't show up in your camera roll, while others allow you to hide certain photos.
Lost device
If your device is lost or stolen, you obviously don't want other people to have access to your photos and other things. Also make sure that a passcode or password is required to unlock the device. Also read: How to make your iPhone worthless to thieves?
It's even safer to use a feature like Apple's Find My iPhone, Microsoft's Find My Phone, or Android Device Manager that lets you remotely lock or wipe your device.
In iOS, you can also choose a setting that automatically erases your device when an incorrect password is entered more than 10 times. This is useful in cases where you do not (yet) realize that your device has disappeared, or if your device does not have access to the cloud to receive commands from features such as Find My iPhone.
revenge porn
If you've ever sent racy photos to an ex-partner, or if someone (against your will or not) has taken intimate photos of you, there's a chance they'll end up on the internet if that person is particularly malicious. It is not always possible to get the photos removed from the website in question, and by then a lot of people have probably already seen the photos. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done about it.
What you can do, however, is to make sure as few people as possible get to your leaked photos by contacting Google to have the photos and links to the photos removed from Google's search results. The content will then remain on the original website and can still be found and accessed via a URL, social media or search engines other than Google.
So it is not a solution, but it is a step in the right direction.
Snapchat
Snapchat seems useful for sending risky snaps because the photos are permanently deleted after a short time.
But what you may not have thought of is that a screenshot (or even a photo of the device) can be taken when your photo is opened. Something that can be viewed can also be photographed.
