Eye of the Creeper; Protecting Privacy with Cyber Civil Rights

http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/26/technology/revenge-porn-victim/index.html

A women named Nikki Rettelle told her worst story in her life after she found out that naked pictures of her are all over the internet after her ex-boyfriend posted them. After years her naked pictures still popping up on the internet. Now in day people call these revenge porn and Nikki is a victim of revenge porn it is kind of online harassment and cyber-bullying.

Nikki said that it started with a man who she was dating and calls “Mr. Wonderful” and who put cameras in all her house until one day she was in her room and she noticed a light beaming from a pen-holder that was a camera and she opened it and found a memory card full with tons of her pictures while she was watching TV and changing her clothes. “Mr. Wonderful” also upload her pictures and all her information as full name, birthday, phone number, and address. “I would stay up almost all night, every night, just in a little cave, just searching more and finding more and more,” she recalls.

This situation happens more than that you would think, there is another woman who asked to be called “Jane” in Chicago that she was victim on revenge porn by her ex-husband who posted pictures and videos taken on her honeymoon  on the internet. “I describe it as similar to maybe the feeling of getting raped — you feel like you’re that exposed,” she said. “You feel like a million people are watching … the most intimate moment of your life.” Both women say law enforcement was initially unhelpful.

Part of the obstacle is how revenge porn cases are prosecuted. It’s not always clear which laws are being broken, depending on how the images were obtained and where they were posted. Seventeen states have enacted legislation that criminalizes revenge porn, although the laws vary in their definition of “revenge” some have a very broad definition, while others are more narrow. Now as result of many cases, a guy named Jacob started the cyber civil rights Initiative, which advocates for new legislation and provides resources for those who have been affected. At the end   Nikki Rettelle send a message to her ex-boyfriend “Mr. Wonderful”.

“I would tell him thank you,” she says. “I love me for the first time in my entire existence and it’s because of the character building I was forced to do because of this.”

This story deals with the values of  liberty,privacy, authority, and trust being broken.  My advice would be not to take any naked photos or videos of yourself.  Unfortunately there are too many ways that technology tools can be used to violate this “private”expression and there are limited ways that the public authority of the government can enforce regulations on “bedroom privacy”.