In the video for her pop hit Call Me Maybe, Carly Rae Jepsen does everything in her power to catch the eye of the hunky boy next door. In real life, it may prove far easier than she’d ever imagined to attract men’s lingering gazes.
According to TMZ. com, the 26- year- old B. C.- born singer contacted Vancouver police in March to report her computer had been hacked and some “XXX photos” stolen.
While Jepsen recently refuted claims of a sex tape and nude photos circulating online ( in each case it was simply a lookalike), TMZ’s tipsters claim these saucy pics are the real deal.
If the report is true and police can’t catch the culprit before the photos get out into the wild, Jepsen could join a very long list of celebrities who have seen their naked snapshots disseminated online faster than the latest version of Angry Birds.
From Scarlett Johansson and Rihanna to Vanessa Hudgens and ( regrettably) Snooki, it seems no one is safe.
In the interests of protecting current and future celebs, we’ve assembled some pro tips on how to avoid this ongoing scourge. We’re really thinking outside the box on these, so pay attention.
1. Don’t take nude photos of yourself. Period.
This covers everything from blurry smartphone snapshots of your privates to setting up studio-quality lights and HD cameras to film your sexcapades.
If you don’t commit images of your naughty bits to some sort of storage medium, said images can’t be distributed against your wishes. It’s that simple.
2. If you must take nude photos of yourself, don’t keep them on your phone.
Most of us have misplaced our phones at one time or another. At best, this is an expensive inconvenience. At worst, those naked self- portraits you took as a lark are now being enjoyed by 13-year-old boys worldwide. Transfer them off your phone and into an encrypted file on your computer hard drive.
3. If you must take nude photos of yourself and keep them on your phone, don’t also keep copies in online-accessible accounts.
Most of these “hackers” are simply crafty folk using research and guesswork to access celebrities’ webmail accounts or online storage folders such as Dropbox, iCloud and SkyDrive. If your login is “carlyrae” and your password is “callmemaybe” you’re hooped.
4. If you must take nude photos of yourself and keep them on your phone and in onlineaccessible accounts, don’t send them to anyone else.
Sexting your boyfriend or girlfriend with racy pics can be very hot. But when that person becomes your ex- boyfriend or ex- girlfriend, all that stands between you and public embarrassment is their goodwill. (Hopefully you weren’t the one who broke it off.) The minute those images land in the hands of someone else, you lose all control of them.
5. If you must take nude photos of yourself and keep them on your phone and in online-accessible accounts while also sending them to people, start thinking about how much you want to charge when they inevitably get made public. You might as well profit from the pictures being leaked, because it’s going to happen.
And that’s no maybe.
steve.tilley@sunmedia.ca