Photo-Sharing Site Runs Afoul of Facebook

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YoBusted says it's justified in asking members to pay fees. "YoBusted offers prospective members a host of services that relate to their Web profile, and it is reasonable to expect them to pay a fee for such services," the company said in its e-mailed statement. "In most cases, people depicted on the site are proud of their joie de vivre and wouldn't think of having the content removed."

Privacy on Social Networks

Vancouver resident Tracey Feenstra says she was shocked to find two photos on YoBusted that she had taken and uploaded to her Facebook profile almost two years ago. She also says she didn't give anyone else permission to post the photos to the site. "None of my friends have heard of YoBusted until now, nor would any of them upload those pictures on a site such as theirs," Feenstra says. She noted that she's inaccurately listed as the subject of the photos, which depict her friends simulating amorous behavior. "I do find it harmful to have those photos public, especially since I am falsely identified as being in the pictures," Feenstra says. YoBusted declined to comment specifically on Feenstra, citing its intent to protect user anonymity; her photos could no longer be found on the site after inquiries from BusinessWeek.com.

According to YoBusted's terms of service, the person submitting the photo "warrants that he or she has the right to publish the photo and grants YoBusted the right to publish it for the stated purposes of the site," the company says in the e-mailed statement. The site also says it will take down photos without requiring a person to become a member in certain circumstances, "at our discretion," such as to ensure server performance or the entertainment value of content. It might also take down photos in case of tagging errors or "if we believe material constitutes a copyright violation."

Facebook takes pains to let users protect the privacy of the photos they post to the site. It lets them keep photo albums private, or share photos with only specific people, groups of users, or only people they've accepted as "friends." But the posting of photos to YoBusted underscores the tenuous grasp on privacy afforded by social media. On Facebook, for instance, the default photo privacy setting lets any of the site's 140 million registered users see a person's pictures. "People are making assumptions that turn out not to be true about the privacy of the material they are submitting" to social networks, says David Ardia, the director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Douglas MacMillan is a staff writer for BusinessWeek in New York.