A new tool developed by Antonio Ortega and Ramesh Govindan, both professors at the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, and University of Southern California, doctoral student Moo-Ryong Ra presented at the USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems and Design Implementation in Chicago on April 5, 2013, promises truly private photo sharing on Facebook, Flickr, and any cloud based photo sharing website.
The system called P3 (Privacy-Preserving Photo Sharing) removes a small but crucial portion of the encryption on a photo file. This change keeps the user in control by allowing services like Facebook and Flickr to have only the unrecognizable unencrypted portion of the photo. The person that posts the photo has the option of deciding who can see the whole file.
In addition to assuring privacy, the tool also allows the photo's owner to retain the rights to the photo.
When you upload a photo to Facebook, for example, Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities indicates that Facebook has a limited license to use that photo until you delete your account Facebook still retains the rights to the portion of the file uploaded with P3 but that file is unrecognizable and useless to Facebook.
P3 retains the utility of sizing the uploaded photo to any format for use on multiple devices like laptops, tablets and phones by people you allow to see the encrypted portion.
The idea is to maintain privacy. Some of your photos are not what you want your boss or spouse or possibly family members to see.
People have lost their jobs when bosses viewed Facebook antics that the boss deemed inappropriate. People have not been able to get a job because of Facebook or Flickr photos that a potential employer found not to their corporate taste. This cannot happen using P3.
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