Edmonton woman speaks out after her private photos fell into the wrong hands

EDMONTON- A young Edmonton woman is speaking out after more than 100 of her personal photos fell into the wrong hands.

Kaila Malito had boudoir photos taken late last year. She says she signed a waiver at the time, but says the photography studio sold a disc full of those private photos to a man claiming to be her boyfriend.

“(He was) sending my photos to people I know on Facebook, previous employees that I used to work with, to my mother on Facebook,” Malito said Wednesday morning. “I feel like I got violated, exploited. It’s just horrible.”

When Malito worked as a waitress, Chris Murray was a regular customer who liked to buy waitresses lavish gifts. He became Facebook friends with many of the waitresses, as well. Malito accepted a gift certificate for a photography session, but didn’t use it until last year. She says Murray found out she used the certificate through Facebook conversations and visited the studio months later.

“(He said) I don’t want her to know because it’s going to be a surprise gift for her. And so without my consent, or anything like that, even calling me, asking me, nothing, they released my disc of personal private photos to him,” Malito explained.

She says she only found out he had the disc of pictures because he bragged about it on Facebook.

“I couldn’t sleep at night. Yeah, I was crying every single day. I didn’t know what to do. I was worried my family was going to see it.”

Malito says the police have told her she can file a restraining order. However, the images are already out there, and she’s furious with the photography studio.

“I signed a waiver saying this is confidential information, this will not be released.”

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner says it can investigate these types of complaints and make strict recommendations.

“A person’s image is their personal information,” said Marylin Mun, assistant privacy commissioner. “The general rule is that organizations require an individual’s consent before they disclose that person’s personal information.”

Artistic Creations Photography Studio says it has implemented new policies to keep this from happening again.

In a written statement the owner, Bill Meachem, said:

“I had no reason to believe the purchaser was misrepresenting his relationship to Ms. Malito, as all the information he provided was pertinent and detailed.”

“I offered to go to the police and file a statement with her, and apologized profusely for the miscommunication.”

However, Malito says this wasn’t a miscommunication; it was a violation of her privacy.

“It’s awful. I don’t want it to happen to anybody else.”

Murray didn’t return phone calls from Global News. He did, however, return Malito’s disc of photos suddenly, last week. But Malito says the images are already out there. She warns anyone having a photo session to question the photography studio carefully on its privacy policies.

With files from Julie Matthews, Global News.