"A freind of the Smiths was driving through Prague when he spotted this picture of her family splashed across a storefront advertisement." Photo: AP
Posted on 06/15/2009 8:01:11 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Jeff and Danielle Smith sent a photo of themselves with their two young children to family and friends as a Christmas card, and posted the image on her blog and a few social networking websites.
Then, late last month, a friend of Mrs Smith's was driving in his neighbourhood in Prague when he spotted the Missouri family's smiling faces in the window of a local supermarket. He snapped a few pictures and sent them to a flabbergasted Mrs Smith.
It's a life-size picture in a grocery store window in Prague - my Christmas card photo!" said Mrs Smith, 36, who lives in the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon.
Mario Bertuccio, who owns the Grazie store in Prague, admitted that he had found the photo online. He said he thought it was computer-generated. When told it was a real photo - of a real family - he promised to remove it.
"We'll be happy to write an e-mail with our apology," said Mr Bertuccio.
The Smiths said they had not authorised anyone to use the pictures.
Mrs Smith has received 180,000 hits to her website since she posted the story about the well- ravelled snapshot. She said the photo wasn't used in an unseemly manner, it was just used to tell potential shoppers about the store's delivery service.
Mrs Smith said next time she posts a family photo on the internet, she will lower the resolution or add an electronic watermark to make it hard to reproduce.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
"A freind of the Smiths was driving through Prague when he spotted this picture of her family splashed across a storefront advertisement." Photo: AP
NPR interviewed the lady on Friday. Interesting story.
I can’t believe how naive people are when it comes to posting their lives on the innerwebs.
Small world :-)
Opportunities lost... all they needed to do was ask for $$$...
It's great. My ex wifes postings online GREATLY helped me out in family court. :)
Reminds me of that scene from ‘National Lampoon’s European Vacation’ where the wife is videotaped nude...then some guy steals the cam. Her pic shows up on a billboard in Italy (I think) advertising the x-rated movie.
You would think the family would not make a big deal over this. It’s a cute picture, no harm done.
LOL my first thought as well.
A Frenchman kindly offers to video the Griswold family playing in the fountain, then runs off with the camcorder. Ellen: "Clark.... you erased the tape, right?"
Haha! That’s it.
Facebook and myspace are where the investigators start these days. That’s where they get the ideas for password attempts and encryption keys.
Nobody cherishes my Christmas cards.
That picture looks like Obama. Same non-gifts he gives his kids every Christmas, too.
PONG
But they're not making a big deal out of it. They're not, for example, suing for millions of dollars claiming mental anguish and grievous personal harm. They're not playing victim. They are, however, acting as a warning sign to folks who put every personal data point on the web where anyone can see and use it.
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