Wednesday, August 6, 2014

When someone steals your photo...

..and made it as her/his Facebook profile picture.

The picture, which I have uploaded in this blog, was used by a woman as her FB profile picture. Being an open account, it generated 'likes' and hundreds of mixed up comments. Some of the comments were positives, others were just hateful, sarcastic even. The comments started with "not bad for Sabahan ladies", with the usual remarks of females' attributes in between. Tales keep on spinning, the owner of the account even invented a story of my cousin being a widow (she is not, thank you very much!). While I, is apparently an unknown tourist, probably from Korea and a complete, selfie-crazy person! Heyyyy, I do selfies but I'm no Kim Kardashian, OK? She's the master of all selfies.

Initially, I didn't know the existence of that woman's FB account but one of my friends (she's frm my hometown) asked us (my cousin and I) if we have other accounts. To which we said, no, we don't. She then sent us a screencapped of the that woman FB profile and well, hell, my pic is her profile pic. Suffice to say, we're not happy with the comments posted next to it.

Long story cut short, we have asked the person to remove the picture and asked her to write an open letter of apology for using my picture without permission. I have to say, her friends were less than happy when they found out that she's been carrying tales all these while.

I don't have issues with people who use images I've uploaded online, but it is only fair to ask for permission no? The only problem is when strangers misuse your photos, it posts a threat to the real owners. Cyber crimes bullying is the worst thing that can happen to you! It's no laughing matter.

Well, since the woman made a public plea and acknowledged her mistakes, we accepted her apology.

Always be cautious, people.

The Long Absence..

 For 6 years.. I haven't been writing anything.  The last entry that I posted was in October 2016! Damn! That feels like a century ago.....