A married woman who spoke out online over one of her husband’s harmless phone photos received no consolation.
The woman, who posted on Reddit’s ‘Am I the asshole’ forum with the disposable account ‘NU65567’, received quite a bit of backlash from the more than 4,000 comments after saying she was was quarreling with her husband because of his use their photo as a contact photo on their phone.
She said last week she bought him a new phone with more features than he was used to, even going so far as to show him how to use some “he hadn’t seen before”. .
But learning the features came back to haunt him. She said she woke up for work on Tuesday and couldn’t find her phone, so he handed her his phone to call her.
“I took his phone, opened the call log and looked up my contact number,” she said. “I saw that he had a photo of me (my face) for my contact photo. I was angry. I woke him up again to ask him why he did that. was normal and he did it with his family and friends even I told him that I didn’t give him permission and he should have asked me if I was comfortable having my picture the low.”
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The woman said the couple lived “away from home” and didn’t know anyone in the area. She therefore feared that the photo of her would be found if her husband lost his phone.
When her husband replied that she had photos of him on her phone, she said she kept them “in a hidden app” so no one would see them and she could simultaneously protect “her privacy”. She added that she allegedly “got his permission for every photo” she took of him before saving them to her phone.
“I demanded that he take it down, but he fought back and said I was bossy and controlling,” she continued. “I told him my face was in there, he said again it’s no big deal and I should relax. I broke down and said I wasn’t going to let him convince me to agree with the violation of my privacy.”
After the husband claimed the contact photo was not a “nude”, further arguments allegedly ensued and led to the photo being deleted altogether. She said her husband ‘kept pouting and saying how hard I tried to dictate his life and what he was doing’, going so far as to say ‘it’s become too much’.
Editors did not take their criticism of the woman lightly, including one who said the poster had chosen “a strange hill to die on”. When many opened the thread, they assumed the woman was upset because the photo was either of her naked, scantily clad, or at an angle that isn’t attractive.
“Unless you walk through society with a veil, people are going to see your face, so the privacy argument seems far-fetched,” one user said. ” What’s the problem ? Your husband is right. You are bossy and controlling.
“It’s so weird,” said another user. “I hope no one tells her that every time she leaves the house, someone can see her.”
Most found women’s opinions extreme given that photos of individuals are often everywhere online, with or without consent, in today’s world of social media and internet connectivity.
Avast reported in 2020 that Google collects data about how you use its devices, apps, and services.
“It ranges from your browsing behavior, your Gmail and YouTube activity, location history, Google searches, online shopping, and more,” they said. “Basically, anything connected to Google is likely used to collect data about your activity and preferences.”
But Google isn’t the only “bad guy” in this scenario, Avast notes, saying that “almost every company you interact with online uses web tracking technology to extract data about your online habits and preferences in order to personalize your experiences and the content you see.”
Social media giants like Facebook have received a lot of criticism over the years, like Forbes noted, for leaking user data, being embroiled in privacy scandals, and being hacked multiple times.
A dispute between the platform and Apple has been going on for months when an Apple update allowed users to opt in to tracking on other apps and websites.
It is not only social media platforms that track users, but also the government.
ACLU announced a trial in 2020, referring to a the wall street journal article that “Sensitive location data is not only sold to commercial entities, but is also purchased by US government agencies”, including by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to locate and arrest immigrants. One company, Venntel, allegedly sold access to a huge database to the US Department of Homeland Security, US Customs and Border Protection, and ICE.
Newsweek has contacted the poster for comment.
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