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Erased Privacy

 Quaint story about a woman's photograph being used without her consent to make false claims in whisky ads. When traveling anywhere touristy it is common experience to have taken pictures with random people in the frame and equally find oneself in random pictures taken by strangers. It would great if wiping out all those extra people from the image was automated and could happen as the picture was taken.

 The technology might not be that far away. When background scrubbing is easily available, it becomes easy to abuse it - to record events as they did not happen for reasons that may not be entirely above-board. It could lead to all manner of unpleasant outcomes - being gaslight about events and being forced to believe and altered reality comes to mind. But random people showing up in our beach pictures could be put out their misery and they'd not show up in pictures they never intended to be part of - they privacy would remain protected. This is not a right that can be easily given even if the privacy was the driving intent

The question of whether anyone has the right to be free from exposure and its many humiliations lingers, intensified but unresolved. The law—that reactive, slow thing—never quite catches up to technology, whether it’s been given one year or 100.

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