Names in EXIF

MarkBarbieri

Semi-retired
Joined
Aug 20, 2006
Messages
6,171
Now that a lot of people are inserting keywords into their JPG files using Lightroom, I'd like to see what people think about putting names in files. I frequently post pictures of outings on my Smugmug site. Because I keyword the photos with names and Smugmug indexes off of those keywords, the photos are searchable by the subjects names. For adults, I've yet to run into someone that has been concerned about that. With kids, its another story.

For some shots, like cub scout shots, I just password protect the entire library. Some organizations are very leery about public exposure and I try to respect that.

What about friends, neighbors, etc? Up until recently, I hadn't even thought about it. I recently posted a few photos of canoe trips taken with friends and checked with them to make sure that they were OK with it. One asked me to remove the last names from their kids and the other said he was OK but wanted to check with his wife.

So what's your thought? Would you post pictures online with your kid's names in the EXIF data? Should you always assume that others don't want their kids names posted? Should you ask about the names? Should you ask before posting pictures of their kids at all?
 
I really don't use any names other than my own kids, and I only use first names on the rare occations I do so. I mostly tag with event names with dates.

So my file might be Kenny Baseball Game 5-30-07, the tags in the EXIF would be the same. And I only batch tag, not individual tag.

I am planning on shooting action shots for next years baseball season, the tags will be the division, teams, and date

ETA, I will pw protect them though as well, with something pretty simple so that folks can look at them, but they are not public.
 
Since most school yearbooks are readily available to the public (my DD's elm school has them in the public library) With a lot of info on our kids in them I don't worry too much about putting my kids first names into the keywords. I don't normally put other kids names though. To me there are so many other ways a perv could find out who my kids are I am not worried about the metadata in my images.
 
Honestly, I don't put anyones names in. I haven't gotten to the point of being that technologically advanced. I have my own name in some of my more recent files (in the copyright and owner fields of PSE 5.0), but if someone wants to find me, they won't be using EXIF data to do it I suppose. However, slightly off topic, I have my own strict rule about posting actual pics of my DD online. To date, I have one very out of focus one online and that is it. I once posted a pic of my DD to a person I knew, via PM, and then deleted it once it had been viewed. That may be a bit neurotic, but I just don't want to go there with the freaks in this world.

Therefore, you will unfortunately never see any of the nice pics that I have of my DD with princesses and other characters or her enjoying a ride in WDW or elsewhere. It's just my personal policy. I wish it didn't have to be that way though.

Andy
 

I haven't gone this direction yet but can confidently say that names will not be a part of tagged information. Call me paranoid but I don't like how little I have control over a lot of information about myself, friends and family that's out there and don't see a need or a benefit to adding to it.

The only reason I could see for doing it myself is if the purpose of the picture was to gain exposure for a person, for instance modeling.
 
Great topic Mark, and one I ponder over often.:scared: :confused: I realize you are asking about names/tags, but I even get concerned just about posting the pictures!

I do feel funny about posting other people's pics on the web, I don't even post my own children's (identifiable) pics on here. Very frustrating, because I would love to share my baseball shots on the baseball thread on this forum.

When I have pics to share with a group (baseball, cub scouts) I post them to a password protected account. I don't do it often, haven't had a complaint/concern yet. When naming a file, at most I have the kid's first name only.

I don't post other folk's pics b/c I think I would be crossing a line - they should have a say if their image is to appear in public! I don't know why I am so leery about posting my own family's or other's though, even when it is relatively anonymous. :confused3

On the other hand, I've probably posted a couple of -say - parades, etc. with a "crowd shot". So, philosophically speaking, how is that any different? Man, I'm gonna be up all night debating this with myself!:rolleyes1

I think my motivation is to just keep a tight line on anonymity on public posts. A picture seems just too revealing/identifiable. Certainly, though, it's a slippery slope topic!:upsidedow
 
I've always been fascinated by people's different assessments of risk.

I don't worry at all about having my children's pictures posted, but from the comments here, it appears to be a common concern. On the flip side, I'm often surprised at the frequency of children engaged in activities I find unacceptably risky, including bicycling or skateboarding without a helmet, riding unbuckled in a car, riding in a car in which the driver is talking on a cell phone, and watching Barney.
 
I use first names whenever tagging in Lightroom. Fortunately, in my whole extended family as well as my friends, I don't think there's a single name overlapping. Not bad, eh? :) If there were, I might put a letter at the end, but that wouldn't help searching anywhere except Lightroom, I bet. (It'd be like searching Google for a single letter.)

I do know some people who won't put a picture of their child on the internet no matter what, because they're afraid of child molesters getting it. I'm sorry, I can't get too concerned about that - should I also make sure that my kid is hidden from view in any public areas? Should I freak out if my kid's in the background of someone else's photo at WDW? (Or the subject - I took a few photos of other kids on my last trip, does that make me a suspicious character?) We have a ton of photos of my son on my wife's site (and quite a few on mine, too), and I have no way of knowing if someone is downloading them and saving them. And so what if they are? How will that harm me?

There are a lot of dangers out there, and if you worry about all of them, it'll make you insane. IMHO, worry about the stuff that you can control - seatbelts, helmets, teaching about crossing the street, being careful of strangers, etc...

Photo_chick also makes a good point - it's not like it's difficult for someone to acquire names and photos of children.

As for posting photos that you don't want everyone to see, I do have a friends/family section that I set up in my gallery. You need a password to get in, but the JPGs themselves are hot-linkable in case I do want to stick one in a forum post somewhere, or link in an email, or whatever. I'm sure that someone could crack the password easily if they wanted, but they'd be pretty bored to just discover that it's only a bunch of friend and family photos that are interesting only to said friends and family.
 
I've always been fascinated by people's different assessments of risk.

I don't worry at all about having my children's pictures posted, but from the comments here, it appears to be a common concern. On the flip side, I'm often surprised at the frequency of children engaged in activities I find unacceptably risky, including bicycling or skateboarding without a helmet, riding unbuckled in a car, riding in a car in which the driver is talking on a cell phone, and watching Barney.

lol Mark. It's funny that I'm so concerned about pic posting (not worried about what others do/decide, just what I do), b/c I'm generally not "overprotective" in other areas. Just this weekend we were camping with the cub scouts, and I allowed my son to ride his bike (helmet on) down a very steep grass hill, where another mom refused to allow her son to do that - I respected her wishes, every kid/family is different (on the other hand, my baseball son is playing in Cooperstown next week, so no way was I allowing him to take that risk!). I guess the difference between posting and the risks you stated above are that we have more control over the latter.

I worked a bit with internet privacy and identity theft a few years back, so I guess I just feel more sensitive around those issues. I agree with all you say, Groucho, but since I don't feel comfortable posting family pics, I go with my feelings.
That's not to say my feelings/comfort level won't change over time; heck, this post alone narrows down my family make up and our whereabouts next week!:rolleyes1

Anyway, keep posting! I love seeing everyone's photography work!:cool1:
 
i don't name names of anyone someplace public like a photobucket area.

i get creeped out somewhat by posting photos of my granddaughter but i do think it's true if someone is determined to do so they can get info from so many sources today you just can not stop it...ie i the local Target photo dept has their photos on computer, daughter has gotten gd's photo done there a few times and they have used a few of gd in some promotional things so it's not like it would be impossible to find a photo unless i posted it.

i'm not the only paranoid one though as i have been at a park a few times taking photos of gd and gotten weird looks and a few weeks ago while in our little village taking photos of lights got a number of questions as to what i was doing by passerbys, not in a mean way but it seems if you have a camera they take note( one little 6-7 ish yr old kid asked if i was a reporter which i thought was cute but i in my paranoia was wondering what he wasdoing walking his dog alone in the public square and talking to strangers at dusk)

i do agree Barney is a true code red danger although thankfully "we" are more into Dora , Diego and Wonder Pets:rotfl:
 
I don't tag any of my photos. Though I do only use first names when I put names in to describe the photos.

I'm with Mark and Groucho. There are just way to many things to worry about. I've never had an issue with posting pics of my kids.
 














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