Black Instagram Pics For Profit #DigitalLivesMatter
Is it really possible that people’s Instagram pictures are being used without their knowledge to authenticate coolness of products and services online?
I actually have a pair of these glasses, and I just happened to be on eyebuydirect.com to show them to someone else. At that time I saw @_queendenise’s pic. I immediately messaged her on her picture asking if she know that she was being used on a website for advertising profit. To my surprise, she responded, no.
I thought it was unlikely that this woman was not notified considering that this woman’s glasses aren’t even prescription, or at least, they don’t look like it. It looks like a prop. I can’t see any change in the shape of her cheek inside and outside of the glasses, like I can on most legally blind people. Still I’m no novice. I was recently on a panel about personal data, which includes digital pictures, with the General Counsel of Olapic, a company that sells Instagram pictures to advertising agencies. She called the pictures, “a free commodity”.
When Jessica mention our personal data as “free” a New York architect jumped up in the audience of mostly lawyers, technologists, and Harvard grads to shout that she should be compensated. The response was that people don’t want a nominal amount of money like “fifty cents or pennies on the dollar”. To her response, the entire crowd disagreed. I think that the moral of the story is that people’s lives have value, and the documentation of them proves value. We have to hold companies accountable for calling our lives “free commodities”. #DigitalLivesMatter #BlackLivesMatter
