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Photo,
Video Sharing Security Introduced By 2Pad
By
Amy Storch On-line surfers are discovering the dangers of posting intimate personal and family photos or videos online. The launch of 2Pad comes as a reassurance to online communities everywhere and in support of the US AD Councils' advertising campaign Think Before You Post, aimed at increasing awareness of the dangers of posting photos and videos online. The majority of photo and video online sharing services including Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Friendster and YouTube are designed to encourage public access to the media published. With the Internet reaching over 60 percent of households in North America alone, user freedom has been abused by encouraging people to share all their personal media online. The 2Pad launch of its beta version was aimed at countering the trend of sharing media to random contacts online provides users with complete control when sharing their digital photographs and videos. With the ability to decide which contact views which media, users will not have to worry as much before they post. Private photos of celebrities and ordinary people have been and continue to be up for grabs both on-line and off-line. Recently, two men were charged with plotting to extort more than $1 million from Tom Cruise for the actor's stolen wedding photographs. David
Hans Schmidt, known for brokering deals involving compromising
celebrity photos and videos, and Marc Lewis Gittleman, were
arrested in July. Gittleman, of West Hollywood, obtained photos of the actor's wedding in Italy last year to Katie Holmes from the event's official photographer, the complaint said. The photographer, identified as Joshua Bobrove, reportedly had taken a damaged computer hard drive containing the wedding photos to Gittleman to employ his services as a data recovery expert. Gittleman then made copies of photos on the drive and kept them for himself, authorities said. He contacted Schmidt after finding a Web site touting his abilities to broker celebrity photos. "We would like to see 2Pad as the photo sharing service which strengthens personal relationships instead of seeking new friends online," says Aaron Boublil, CEO of 2Pad. "2Pad is the precise tool needed to bring the privacy back to the Internet." In addition to being the first safe and private online media sharing service, 2Pad is an easy-to-use service and is created with an Ajax based friendly Web 2.0 user interface. And it is free. 2Pad makes adding media as easy as emailing photos or videos. One just needs to email 2pad@2pad.com and an account is created with an Ajax based Web 2.0 user interface. Users send their pictures and videos by e-mail to the company, which creates a free media mailbox with unlimited space to collect all your media attachments in one place. One then decides which photos or videos to share with whom, select the contacts and send them out. The pictures go directly to your friends' or family member's 2Pad accounts. "People think sharing is a lot of fun until they realize that a picture of their child in the bath has been viewed hundreds of times by strangers, or when a college turns down an applicant after searching the Net and finding dozens of pictures of the student lying drunk on the floor," explains Susi Doring, marketing manager at Israel media sharing site 2Pad. "Many users don't check their privacy and it's causing great alarm. Sharing has hit a critical point when it gets out of hand. Pictures are viewable not just by friends but strangers as well," she adds. "This way you can send a nice picture of yourself at a wedding to your mom and dad, and send the picture of yourself dancing on a table to friends," said Doring. "It's a lot more private and it keeps things organized." The creators of 2Pad state that there is no limit to the number of pictures or videos that one can store on their site. However, there is a limit to the size of the pictures stored on the site. There are three levels of service. With their free service, one may store up to 1 GB. The maximum file size for a single picture or video is 20 MB, and videos are limited to 5 minutes in length. With 2Pad.com enhanced photo sharing service, one can store up to 5 GB. The maximum file size for a single picture or video is 100 MB, and videos are limited to 10 minutes in length. With their premium photo sharing service, one can store up to 20 GB. The maximum file size for a single picture or video is 200 MB, and videos are limited to 20 minutes in length. "No one has access to your account without your password or magic link," says Boublil. "However, one of the benefits of 2Pad is the ease in which you can share pictures from your 2Pad with other people. To share pictures, select the pictures you want to share, and either choose existing recipients from your contact list, or add new people to your contact list to receive the pictures and videos." Boublil says that there are two types of email you can receive from 2Pad. The first type are notifications that you or a friend have added pictures to your 2Pad.com account. The second type are notifications about your photo and or video sharing service. You can easily opt out of 2Pad emails by clicking one of the links at the bottom of the notification emails. You can also block a specific user and stop receiving all notifications from 2Pad. Flickr which boasts itself as "almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world," provides thousands of photos for which one can share with the world. Flickr states: "Show off your favorite photos to the world, securely and privately show photos to your friends and family, or blog the photos you take with a cameraphone." But when Flickr states "securely" many people do not notice nor stop to think what the word securely means and the extent of harm for which people can do with their on-line photos. "Most
people who surf the Web know only the mere basics and not the
dangers," says Aaron Boublil, CEO of 2Pad."When they
enter and upload photos and videos to such sites as Flickr,
MySpace and YouTube they are given an option to make their photos
and videos private, but many do not know what this option means.
Many do not even see this option. At 2Pad there is no option.
There is no misunderstandings. All photos and videos uploaded
to 2Pad.com are secure and remain private. There is no room
for mistake, photo fraud or theft."
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