Photos - part 1: Who’s stealing your photos?

Whether you are posting selfies of yourself on Facebook or sharing your creative holiday snaps of African wildlife on Instagram it is important to protect your images.

One day, you will stumble across one of your photos being used without your permission. The first time it happens, it may feel almost complementary: “Wow, my photos are good enough to get stolen”.  It may be validating but at the same time a violation.

Why are photos stolen?

Here are a few reasons:

1) Criminals and online weirdos steal photos of people for fake online profiles they are creating;

2) Creative images are stolen because people think they can get away with claiming they took the artistic shot themselves;

3) Images are stolen because it costs nothing;

4) It is difficult to police.

Reverse image search

A reverse image search essentially reads the unique pattern of an image and works to find similar patterns around the web. There are a few ways to conduct a reverse image search.  Tineye and Google Images are two useful sites for this.

What to do if you find your stolen image – part 1: send an e-mail

If you find a site using your image(s) without your consent contact the administer, giving them proof the image is yours, and that the profile is fake.  In the e-mail give them a deadline to respond and take action by or you will escalate the matter futher.

What to do if you find your stolen image – part 2: submit a DMCA Claim

A DMCA claim, which stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act that helps protect your copyrights online.  Facebook (plus other sites) makes submitting a DMCA claim refreshingly easy.  Simply visit Facebook’s DMCA claim form and follow the prompts. Facebook will remove the offending photo usually in less than twenty four hours.