In the world we live in today privacy is an issue which attracts an awful lot of attention, so how mobile phone operator O2 managed to allow private photographs sent via their network to be listed on Google is a complete mystery. To make matters worse, the pictures which were indexed under the Google imaging system also list the sender's mobile phone number at the top of the caption!
The problem occurs for those who receive an MMS from an O2 customer, to a phone which is not compatible with O2 – such as the iPhone. Rather than a standard MMS they will actually be sent a URL so that you can access the picture online. Unfortunately the coders at O2 forgot to secure these pictures and the URLs are accessible by anyone on the internet. The problem was magnified by the fact that Google images have picked up many of these pictures which are now available to the masses!
It will be interesting to see if the company receive any warnings from the regulators for this issue as it has the potential to cause problems for many users. Private pictures are just that, not to be shown all around the world at the touch of a button! |
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