There is no privacy. There. That’s out of the way. But, wait. You have set your Facebook settings/preferences to be private, right? You’ve just attended your association’s annual event and everyone was snapping shots (maybe even ‘taking’ them) and the selfie you took with the new member was the best picture you’ve taken since prom. You and all your fellow members and attendees checked in on FB and the event is officially a success!
Best yet, you are being tagged by others as they hover over your face. Um, you okay with that?
There is currently a class action suit against Facebook’s tag technology alleging that it violates one state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by not securing user consent before recording users’ facial biometrics. Your face is extracted with biometrics and stored in the database. Is this an invassion of biometric privacy rights that harms your “concrete private affairs and interests?”
Do your group’s party-goers give permission? This is a brave new world of technology. Like every other tech advance, you may want to think about protecting yourself and, if you are on the Board of Directors of a nonprofit, I’m suggesting that you use one or all of the following opportunities to warn people their pictures may show up on social media: Put a note on the invitation and get their signature of acceptance; put a line at the bottom of the web site event page, print it on event tickets. It doesn’t have to be in 36 point type, but cover yourselves.
That guy who is clearly seen behind you in that selfie of you and your new member may not be too thrilled he’s been tagged on FB.
