In this day and age -- of social media, AI, boundaries (that seem to be indiscriminately pushed), people who don't seem to know right from wrong/respect from disrespect, people who don't regard others' authorship/ownership (of material, products, services, and information, etc. posted online) -- understanding privacy settings and using them appropriately in the digital environment are vital. I just learned quite a lesson.
Earlier in the year, I had a consultation with an artist I respect for his/her retail and design talents. Our dialogue was captured on video by the consultant to share with me privately via YouTube. The uploaded video had a privacy setting of 'Private'. This setting prevents accessing a video through the platform except for those the owner invites/designates. Unfortunately, I couldn't access it at the 'Private' setting, so the setting was changed to 'Unlisted'. This setting did allow me to access the video, but little did I know that anyone else would be able to as well...but only if they could find it. (Videos with the 'Unlisted' setting, don't show up in search results, so they are harder but not impossible to find.) Last night while doing a Google search, I found the video had been posted to someone's LinkedIn page - and because it was embedded, the video could be directly viewed there. To say I was shocked was an understatement.
In follow-up, I contacted the consultant for help. The video's YouTube security setting was immediately revised from its 'Unlisted' status to 'Private'...so it would no longer be available. Shortly thereafter, it was deleted from the site entirely.
What did I learn?
You can't trust others to ask for permission before using your information. This is true for anything you post on any social media platform as well as what you send in emails, texts, etc.! You also have to be clear about expectations when uploading or allowing the upload of any of your information to social media platforms.
The person who posted the consultant's video, in my case, was in the wrong for not asking permission to post it (the answer of which would have been no in any case) and let me be clear....an 'Unlisted' video security setting on YouTube IS NOT permission to use such videos without contacting the owner for permission!
The consultant could have asked me to advise him/her when I finished with the video so the setting could be changed back to Private (from Unlisted) and/or to ask that I advise him/her when I was done with it so it could be deleted.
I, too, bear some responsibility in that I should have understood what the settings differences meant, and I could have asked the consultant to delete the video when I was done with it.
All this is to say BE AWARE AND MINDFUL when you post anything especially if you intend for it to be private. Ensure your privacy settings reflect what you want to happen and do regular name searches in various search engines to see whether something untoward shows up that you need to step in to handle.
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