What to Do If Your Online Photo Is Misused
Can you sue if your photo is misused online? It's a question many people are asking these days, with the free availability of personal data online.
And with the MTV show "Catfish" showcasing stories of catfishing -- i.e., creating fake profiles and false identities for fraudulent purposes -- it's opening people's eyes to how easy it is to lift a photo off Facebook, or any other website for that matter.
What can you do, if your photo is lifted and used without your permission? Here are some potential courses of action:
And with the MTV show "Catfish" showcasing stories of catfishing -- i.e., creating fake profiles and false identities for fraudulent purposes -- it's opening people's eyes to how easy it is to lift a photo off Facebook, or any other website for that matter.
What can you do, if your photo is lifted and used without your permission? Here are some potential courses of action:
Contact the photo-sharing company. There is usually a way to get in touch with the photo sharing website, whether it's by email or phone. They're the ones in the best position to take down your photo. However, they may not take down a photo unless there's a major legal violation. So if it's just someone reposting a photo of you that you don't like, the website likely won't do much. But if the photo contains nudity,depicts a minor o