Privacy Settings

Wednesday, 3 September 2014 at 15:23

Oxford OPP give tips to protect your 'sensitive' material from becoming public

OXFORD COUNTY - Once you put information out there, you can't draw it back.

That's the message from Oxford OPP in regards to personal images that could be stolen from your computer or internet sites.

This comes after several celebrities claim to have had nude photographs stolen.

Constable Lisa Narancsik says you need to make sure you know the programs you are using and need to realize that the programs are owned by someone else who keeps the information on their servers even if you think you deleted it.

"We just have to be making sure we have our privacy settings set in place. Make sure we have our passwords set in place and are changing our passwords regularly, never giving them out to anyone, making sure we have our firewalls set up because we need to make sure we are safe but also our children are safe because sometimes people can link into things that are related to children as well."

Narancsik says while each case is different, any charges laid would be criminal in nature.

"It could be theft of data because you are stealing the data that belongs to someone else. Whether it's pictures or whatever, if it is pornographic or nude pictures, depending on what they are going to be using the pictures for, it's could be corrupting morals charge. It could lead to any number of charges depending on what the use is, whether it's harassment..."

Narancsik says these kinds of crimes have happened in Oxford County.

"People have had pictures taken and then posted to websites that are not where the person wanted the pictures put to so charges were related to that. Sometimes pictures are forwarded on as a result of a break up, sometimes pictures are just forwarded on for who knows what reason so we do see it everywhere."

Narancsik says your best bet is not to post any photos or information you wouldn't want people to see but if you must, she says you need to keep a close watch on your privacy settings.