Photos of Rehtaeh Parsons in dating ad highlight lack of online privacy: expert
The use of photos of Rehtaeh Parsons in online dating ads posted on Facebook is upsetting, but ultimately an inevitable reality of social media, an expert in Internet and privacy law said Wednesday.
Professor Robert Currie of Dalhousie University in Halifax said companies are increasingly using automated programs that rip photos from websites, and it was only a matter of time before the now-ubiquitous image of the 17-year-old girl wound up somewhere it shouldn’t have.
“This is how technology works and it’s another example of how little control anyone has over any image once it gets out into the Internet sphere,” said Currie, director of the university’s law and technology institute.
“It really seems to me to be an unfortunate accident that is causing a lot of grief and heartbreak to the Parsons family and others who loved this girl and who were disturbed by this case. But it’s just the kind of thing that is going to happen.”
The ads for Ionechat.com featured pictures of Parsons under the heading, “Find Love in Canada! Meet Canadian girls and women for friendship, dating or relationships.”
Parsons hanged herself in April and was taken off life-support days later. Her family says her death was brought on by months of bullying following an alleged sexual assault. Her story has generated headlines around the world, and a search of her name in Google images generates hundreds of photos from blogs and news websites.
The administrator of Ionechat.com, Anh Dung, said the photos used in the ads were a mistake and taken randomly from Google by a socalled image scraper.
“I’m a foreigner, so I didn’t even know her name and the story … so I didn’t know it was the victim’s photo,” Dung wrote in an email, adding that he immediately took the website down after receiving emails from reporters.
“I feel so guilty. I sincerely apologize,” he continued. “I’m so stressed right now.”
Parsons’ father, Glen Canning, said the photos — many of which are posted on a Facebook page in memory of the teenager — should never have been used.
“For something like that to happen to Rehtaeh, given the circumstances of her death and the grief we’ve gone through, it was pretty disturbing and disgusting to see something like that,” he said in an interview.
“It’s our image. It belongs to Rehtaeh’s family. Just to lift it off and start using it like that is very thoughtless.”