Online impersonators may pay a price when new law takes effect.

Most people are probably unaware if their images have been borrowed and used by others to create online identities or profiles, but there are others that have been humiliated or physically harmed.   

According to a News10 article, 'online impersonators have sent Twitter messages "signed" by celebrities, pretended to be someone else to send obscene e-mails, even subjected others to unwanted sexual advances by assuming their identity to post invitations on adult sites. In one example, a woman angry about her ex-husband's girlfriend pretended to be the girlfriend's daughter on an adult dating site, causing the daughter to receive lewd responses'.

California is now updating its impersonation laws making it a misdemeanor to assume someone else's identity to harm, intimidate, threaten or defraud. The new law takes effect on January 1, 2011.

Should your dating profile be linked to your personal identity?

Online dating is growing in popularity with an estimated 20 million Americans meeting potential love interests online.  A recent New York Times article discussed safety risks associated with online dating, mostly stemming from the ease at which people can misrepresent themselves online.  According to the article, online daters are encountering married people pretending to be single or, worse, sexual predators and convicted felons” and that “plenty of crime stories begin with two people skimming each other’s online dating profiles” and referenced “the widely reported case of Jeffrey Marsalis, a serial rapist in Philadelphia who met his victims on Match.com.”  There are also people who post other people’s pictures (probably pulled from other online to create a new online identity without the intention to ever meet in person.

Physical attraction is an important part of screening potential mates but shouldn’t you be more cautious about who can identify you by your profile picture?  It’s a question that deserves attention, especially with the recent leak of WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange’s dating profile on OKCupid.  

Teasers can be pixelated or clouded
with a privacy scale of 1-100.
(Cloud:60 as shown)

Through ProtectedPix you can create a ‘teaser image’ by modifying your picture so that it shows what you look like without the viewer being able to identify you.  Once you are comfortable with who you are communicating with you can reveal yourself in a clear picture. Each teaser is given a code which allows users to find you, write you a custom message and request to see your pictures.

To learn more about teasers take the video tour.

High-ranking Arizona cop demoted after semi-nude photos of several women found on town cell phone

Donald Garvin, Payson Arizona's second-ranking cop was demoted after police probe reveals a pattern of drinking, cell phone "sexting" and affairs. His attorney, Martin Bihn, said at last week’s hearing that Garvin was being punished harshly for private behavior that never came close to abusing his office. More

Australian athlete thought naked pictures were deleted but instead they were posted on Facebook

Nick Riewoldt, Captain of Australia's St. Kilda Football Club, and several other players are involved in a photo scandal after naked pictures of the athletes were posted on Facebook by a teenage girl.  Riewoldt, said that the photos were taken by a teammate and he requested at that time that they be deleted.  Instead the images were download onto a computer and stolen.  The teenager, who Riewoldt denies ever meeting, had been shopping the images around and is said to have posted the photos as 'revenge'. Facebook took the photos down and closed the girls account but the images have spread and are still available online. More

Woman losses $14,000 to a man she met online

A woman reported to police that she believes she has been scammed out of $14,000 by a man overseas whom she met through an online dating service. We bet he probably didn't use his real picture-maybe he pulled one off of another profile, an internet search or your Facebook page. Maybe he took her picture and is pretending to be her scamming someone else.  Hmmm....

Read the story

Elizabeth Hurley's budding relationship with Shane Warne ends over sexting

Melbourne businessman Denis Angeleri passed dozens of explicit texts, sent to his wife by cricketer Shane Warne, to the English press and then wrote a note to Warne's fans on Warne's website. See the story at The Daily Telegraph

Anna Faris admits to 'sexting' her father by mistake...

Updated 12/20/2010: Video expired. View another here

JWoww Demands Return of Naked Pix from Ex-Boyfriend

"Jersey Shore" star, Jwoww's is in a legal fight with her ex-boyfriend/former business manager Thomas Lippolis which seems to partially include the return of photos that are allegedly in his possession and that "leave nothing to the imagination".  According to RadarOnline, these photos were being shopped around last January and it seems Jwoww, whose real name is Jenni Farley, wants them back.  Read the story on TMZ

Semi-nude Christina Aguilera photos leak after stylist's account gets hacked

Christina Aguilera is upset over photos that were leaked on the Internet.  The photos, that were intended to be seen only by her stylist, were taken after her stylist's email account was hacked. Read more

 

It's time to sign-up for a ProtectedPix trial...

Sharing photos taken with smartphones may share too much.

Smartphones know the location of photos and embed that info into the picture file. If you share the photo online, you might be sharing more than you bargained for-like what you got for Christmas and where thieves can come and pick it up.

Read more

What you are privately doing online is really not so private.

Search engines are tracking what you do online.  Your computer has an IP address, similar to a post-office mailing address, and by monitoring it search engines know what websites you are visiting.  This helps them send targeted advertisements to you but also creates a record of your surfing history.  If you have a disease and are searching for a cure there is a trail.  And many times what you’re searching for can be misinterpreted.  If you search for “terrorist groups” does that mean you are looking to join one?  Some are pushing for an option to opt-out of tracking, similar to the ‘Do Not Call’ list. Until then you may consider using a proxy server that allows you to connect to another computer to do the surfing for you.