Are you a “share-ent”?
According to a Canadian digital security expert, the average parent posts 1,500 photos of their kids on social media by the time they turn five — something that could come with dire consequences.
Ritesh Kotak told 680 CJOB that with technology advancing so quickly, behind every photo on the screen, there’s also metadata that includes a digital signature, divulging much more information.
“You can imagine all that treasure trove of data that’s out there about a child, about an individual who cannot consent, who doesn’t have a say in the matter,” said Kotak.
“It could tell us location, it could tell us what kind of camera was used, and it could also tell us the date and time of when that picture was taken — not when it was posted, but when it was taken.
“When you get that kind of data and you start aggregating it, you start getting a story on that individual — where they live, where they work, where they go to school.”
Kotak said a collection of that data could lead to problems like identity theft in the future, and facial recognition technology could potentially compromise your child’s ability to get a job or go to school when they’re older.
“The use of facial recognition technology in society might actually be a huge hindrance in the future to that child if they want to get into a certain type of employment, or there’s something related to their identity, identity theft,” he said.
Kotak said one tip to prevent any problems is not posting an image of your kids publicly — rather, take the time to choose a specific audience that can see those images. Avoiding using a pic of your children as a profile or cover image can also help keep those photos safe.
“If you going to do it, there are ways of minimizing risk, however, I would recommend not doing it at all.”
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