September 1, 2014

"Celebrities, make it harder for hackers to get nude pics of you from your computer by not putting nude pics of yourself on the computer."

Tweeted Ricky Gervais, after a big naked-celebrity security leak at iCloud.

He's getting reamed for saying that.

A smarter tweet from Lena Dunham: "Remember, when you look at these pictures you are violating these women again and again. It’s not okay. Seriously, do not forget that the person who stole these pictures and leaked them is not a hacker: they’re a sex offender."

And: "Also sad I can’t make one joke about having shown my t*ts on purpose without a massive qualitative tit debate. Some of y’all, dang. The 'don’t take naked pics if you don’t want them online' argument is the 'she was wearing a short skirt' of the web. Ugh."

IN THE COMMENTS: John Nowak said:
I wish people would stop saying "the Cloud" and replace it with "Someone else's server."

I think that would make some decisions more clear for what they are. 
I don't think people realize that they may have their iPhone set to store photos automatically on Apple's servers. Many lovers just fool around with the phone camera. Are you smart enough to know how stupid you need to be to make the "Jennifer Lawrence mistake"?

135 comments:

dreams said...

I think Ricky's comment was the smarter comment. The second comment is just silly, something a female would say.

dreams said...

People should take responsibility for their actions for ultimately they will be the ones who are affected by them.

JMS said...

People, make it harder for thieves to steal your valuables by not leaving them where they can easily be taken.

Anonymous said...

Blogger dreams said...
I think Ricky's comment was the smarter comment. The second comment is just silly, something a female would say.

9/1/14, 3:27 PM
---------------------

I second that.

Connie said...

I am going to give my 17 year old daughter Ricky's advice, because once there digital pics of your naughty bits they are never safe, and they will never go away.

Revenant said...

I'm amused that Dunham's quote is supposed to be "smarter" than Gervais'.

Gervais's comment is good advice. Dunham's is delusional.

Michael P said...

The idea that one can take simple preventive actions to thwart certain attacks is not the "she was wearing a short skirt" of the web: it is the "maybe we should encourage people not to get stupidly drunk" of the web.

Also, characterizing the criminal in this case as a "sex offender" shows how stupidly overbroad that term has become. Sex offender registration laws and residency/travel restrictions in modern America are meant to prevent certain kinds of recidivism, but this kind of crime is totally irrelevant to those rules: If the low-hanging fruit in iCloud were swimsuit pictures or tax returns instead of nude pictures, the former is what would have been leaked.

I am also not a fan of the oversimplification of "violating these women again and again": it is an intentional blurring of rape with privacy violation, of making an IT crime seem like a particular pernicious kind of physical assault.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Famous people forgetting why they are famous.

People who flaunt their lives in public don't always get to set the limits on how far the public can go. These are public figures. They have the right not to have their phone hacked, but it shouldn't be much of a surprise to them when it happens.

The rules for being a celebrity are different than for everyone else. That's why they wanted to be celebrities. Searching for generalities in the lives of the very elite is pointless. Gervais is right, for the select group of people he's talking to. It's simply the cost of doing business- for a public figure maintaining privacy is a greater challenge.

Want privacy? Live a private life. It's easy to not be noticed.

Patrick said...

Gervais'comment describes the world as it is, for better or worse. We can all wish we loved in a world where naked pictures do not get hacked and released, but that is not our world. Giving advice to act as though you live in the real world, with all its imperfections is prudent, not merely saying "she was asking for it."

m stone said...

If the hacker is a "sex offender" is someone who views the photos online an accessory to the crime?

Anonymous said...

Gervais is right.

Forbes said...

Lena Dunham: Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life.

jacksonjay said...

We disagree on what smarter means. I raised three daughters. Ricky is smarter that Lena. He sounds like the father of daughters. We should remember that the brillant Miss Dunham was a model for the sleazy Terry Richardson. Maybe that has influenced her opinion.

Hagar said...

Something a lefty Democrat female would say.

Bob Ellison said...

I third (fourth? fifth?) dreams's comment.

Don't do stupid stuff, and when you do, as do we all, don't blame someone else for your own stupidity.

cubanbob said...

Anything that can be digitized can be uploaded to the web and in turned hacked. It's a reality of life. These stupid celebrities should know this. Ricky is right. If one leaves their home's windows open and doors unlocked and gets robbed, that doesn't absolve the thief but the fact that one was robbed under those circumstances also doesn't absolve the homeowner of responsibility for the loss. Unfortunately we live in an age of diminished privacy but that is the case and one has to understand that and act accordingly. As noted by other commentators celebrities are celebrities for a reason and they should have enough common sense to understand that their fans and detractors just love all kinds of stuff good and bad about them and govern themselves accordingly.

rhhardin said...

Approx quote from Love and Other Drugs, the porn addicted brother of the hero on being discovered with video of the brother's trysts

"I'm not looking at _her_. I'm just looking at body parts."

YoungHegelian said...

Being famous & having nude pics on your computer is one thing.

Being famous & having nude pics stored in "the cloud" is a whole new level of stupidity. There is no privacy from hackers & dishonest system admins in the cloud short of encrypting your files.

The problem is every physically beautiful actress or actor has the cheesecake/beefcake shots done for their portfolio, and the shots are just hanging around somewhere in digital form for some one to steal. The answer is to encrypt stuff like this until it's needed.

rhhardin said...

Iowahawk offered to keep celebrity nude pics on his computer for safety.

retired said...

Can't be said enough. What credibility or wisdom does Dunham bring to the discussion?

jacksonjay said...


Twitter was invented for Iowahawk.

FullMoon said...

Generally speaking people who are proud of their assets take nude pictures.

That being said, the best advice is to make sure the nude pics are flattering.

The internet is FOREVER.

David said...

"Seriously, do not forget that the person who stole these pictures and leaked them is not a hacker: they’re a sex offender."

And the elements of the offense are . . . . ?

Guess what? Everything bad that is done to a woman, even if it involves emphasizing her sexuality in some way, does not constitute a sex offense.

I think I can still stare at a good looking woman without breaking the law. At least if I am not on a college campus.

Brando said...

In what stupid world is Dunhams comment the smarter one? Comparing this to the "she was wearing a shirt skirt" trope is inane.

Anyone who isn't a moron knows digital pictures have a way of getting out there, and getting a photo off the internet is like getting piss out of the ocean. Vervains is speaking basic common sense.

Dunham speaks for a new generation of fake feminists ("fauxminists"?) who are all about women having no agency, no responsibility, and no need to take charge of their own victim hood. Want to know why most American women shun the feminist label these days? Look no further than the Dunhamization of the term, championing victim hood, weakness and stupidity. What intelligent woman would want any part of that?

Anonymous said...

I second that. I've got an image-scanner and just picked -up a used Dell hard-drive to tinker around with ladies.

Totally secure.

As for Dunham, feminist ideology rewards victimhood and dependency in our young women. That's just not American. Think of pioneer women. They didnt take much shit from anybody. Feminist ideology is no more American than trying to silence opponents b/c you're too much of a hothouse flower.

I dream of a day when we can marginalize some of the more anaesthetic, humorless harpies and allow real tolerance and vigorous freedom to prosper.

Bruce Hayden said...

Sex offender to me implies that some law has been broken. And, not copyright law. And, that, along with computer crimes, are really all that she has on the hackers, and none of it probably rises to the level of a sex crime, and so the hacker/copyright infringer is likely not a sex offender, unless the person in the picture was underage. Besides, if it is a sex crime to have those photos, it would have been one to take them and ship them around to agencies and the like.

I should add that this is the law in the US - apparently there are special laws on the books in the UK to protect the Royal Family from this sort of thing.

This is what the paparazzi do - they violate the privacy of celebrities so that they can sell their ill gotten gains to tabloids for hopefully a lot of money.

bleh said...

Oh give me a break. What the hacker did was wrong, but it's not sexual assault. And let's not lose sight of the fact that these are celebrities, who willingly expose themselves to public scrutiny. They love the adulation, and yet want their privacy and for everything to be done on their terms.

Life doesn't work that way.

AmPowerBlog said...

LOL!

I told you, heh. Everybody's trolling for some of that Jennifer Lawrence nude traffic!

traditionalguy said...

The NSA guys must see a lot of the good, bad and the ugly of the iCloud users. Hey, do Ann and Meade use icloud? Nah.

Lyle said...

Looking at a picture is like wrestling someone down and raping them, or inappropriately touching them?

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, did you really think Dunham had the smarter comment? In what way did you think it was smarter? Did you not know that pixels live forever? At least back in the days of film it was at least theoretically possible to know when a woman had retrieved the negative and all the prints. With digital imagery once you've made one copy it should be assumed that you've made an infinite number of copies.

Bob Ellison said...

Donald Douglas said, "I told you, heh. Everybody's trolling for some of that Jennifer Lawrence nude traffic!"

I think the word you want is "trawling".

Anyway, do you really think so? Everybody? Is it possible that some people would actually avoid clicking on links to such pictures, even though we might think and say that she was stupid to supposedly put such stuff on the cloud?

MathMom said...

Yup. I go with Ricky's comment.

There are no naked pics of me on the internet, because there are no naked pics of me. I don't understand why women pose for naked pics, then are upset when they are seen.

If they posed for the pics when they were younger, and then decided it was a mistake when they are now well-compensated movie stars, use the money to make them disappear!

Go buy them from the photog, and get the negatives or the SD card and a legally binding contract to delete any that might be floating around. Come down on the photog like a ton of bricks if that contract is breached.

Storing them in the cloud? Well...duh.

Bob Ellison said...

Or are you referring to our hostess, trawling for links/hits/etc. by commenting on this?

That seems plausible.

Kevin said...

Actually one of the lamest posts I've seen on this blog. Also hard to square with the, what I thought was relatively convincing, argument you made about men actively choosing letting go of the custody of their sperm, and the consequences thereof being just and fair.

John Nowak said...

I wish people would stop saying "the Cloud" and replace it with "Someone else's server."

I think that would make some decisions more clear for what they are.

AustinRoth said...

I think Lena Dunham allowing ANY image of her to be shown in less than a full burhka makes HER a sex offender.

It certainly offended me!

Michael K said...

If Miss Dunham ever posts naked pictures of herself, I promise not to look.

Careers have been built from "leaked" porno flicks, let alone naked pics. Ask Paris Hilton and isn't that the way the Kardashians got their start ?

Lena is, as usual, a bit late to the party.

mccullough said...

Hey, you, get off of my cloud.

damikesc said...

Professor, Gervais tweet is smarter. Nude pics in the public are always public. Avoiding the problem is the only effective solution.

SarahW said...

I tend to agree with Dunham. No one had a right to break into their devices and take what was stored there. That it happened to be private but interesting pictures of themselves doesn't make them foolish for using their picture storage devices in a common way.

That's like saying "Don't be attractive and have nice panties" if a thief breaks in through the weak locks on your patio door and rummages through your drawers.

You wouldn't hear police saying "if you don't want your nice underpants stolen, don't keep them in your drawers where thieves know to look for them. Also don't be female and attractive.

It's hardly helpful - discretion, locks, boring pictures might discourage thieves and pervy theives especially, but he's still the criminal and the perv.

Maybe YOU feel comfortable at Mr. Perve waving the panties around like a trophy and secretly cheer him on. I however, think less of anyone who does.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Sext Stooges.

cubanbob said...

You wouldn't hear police saying "if you don't want your nice underpants stolen, don't keep them in your drawers where thieves know to look for them."

@ Sarah W the police would also say don't leave your doors unlocked and your windows open and your insurance company would decline to cover the claim for failure to take reasonable measures to protect your property. Stupidity has its consequences.

Jason said...

I don't think there are too many women who grew up in the digital camera or cell phone age who haven't sent a racy photo to a boyfriend or husband at some point.

I don't think any less of anyone who does it.

There's nothing in those photos as embarrassing as Hollywood's shitty movies, anyway.

buwaya said...

As it happens at the moment I am consulting on encrypting cloud data.
This scandal will help me a lot.

rhhardin said...

Oberlin alumni magazine had an interview with Dunham, which I didn't read. Just remarking that I've heard of her and apparently am related by mater.


David said...

So Cuban Bob? Insurance companies can now decline to pay if you don't lock your door or shut your window? You should call Elizabeth Warren and let her know.

Bob R said...

If you are trying to make me feel sorry for a bunch of exhibitionists who have been violated by a peeping tom, it's not working. Not cheering for the peeping tom, but not feeling any sympathy for the exhibitionists.

Clayton Hennesey said...

I'll be the one to say it.

As the Baby Boomers age, there'll be a market for nude celebrity granny and grampy pics.

And, really, who wouldn't have lusted after a feisty nude Irene Ryan in her Beverly Hillbillies days?

Paco Wové said...

"trawling for links/hits/etc."

Yeah, some days I think Althouse needs an "auto-trolling" tag. Or maybe, as Althouse did with Obama, I have just projected a greater degree of thoughtfulness onto Althouse than is really warranted – as a result of wishful thinking – and she really believes that Dunham's comment was "smarter". (More in tune with the hysterical zeitgeist, I'll grant you... but smarter? Please.)

Brando said...

SarahW, I'm not sure where anyone is defending the hacker(s). But pointing out the obvious--which is that crimes like these become much easier to commit when the victim takes certain steps--is neither excusing the crime nor blaming the victim for it. Why is this so hard for many people to understand? And don't they understand that their argument infantilized victims by assuming they can't ever take action to discourage the crime in the first place?

madAsHell said...

Dunham is just upset that no one wants to look at her naked pictures.

The Crack Emcee said...

I was glad to see the one with the penis in the smiling woman's eye.

Took all the feminist guilt away,..


Big Mike said...

In the "for what it's worth" category, cloud security is still a research project at most places. Putting sensitive data in the cloud is dangerous.

William said...

I'm saddened no one linked to the pictures in question. It's impossible to judge how violative these photos were without at least looking at them. I'd like like to pass an informed judgement on these photos, especially the Kate Upton ones. At present, my uninformed opinion is that while nude photos make most people look weak and vulnerable, a nude photo of Kate Upton would have just the opposite effect. Her Armani power suit is nudity. But, as I say, it's impossible to reach an formed opinion on this matter without seeing the pictures in question,

madAsHell said...

Something ain't right here.

Multiple celebrities had their accounts hacked, and they all included nude pictures? I'm assuming these were discrete accounts with different passwords. Each account that was breached included nudie pictures. There was nothing else of interest in the accounts??

I get real suspicious when coincidence align.

Aught Severn said...

@SarahW - 4:38...

To begin with, the pictures weren't stored on the owners' private devices, they were stored in the "cloud": aka some random server of some random company. This would be the equivalent of keeping your unmentionables in a locker in a public area. They should be safe, but since you aren't keeping positive control, the risk of them being taken goes up.

Risk being the key word. Everything we do has some associated risk and it's up to us to decide where our own acceptable level is. If you absolutely have to take nude photos of yourself, there are plenty of ways to do that while minimizing the possibility of them being found and taken. Putting them in the cloud (unencrypted) is not one of those ways.

khesanh0802 said...

I think we should all live by the adage that if it is on a computer it is public, simple as that.

Edmund said...

@Michael K If Miss Dunham ever posts naked pictures of herself, I promise not to look.

She has a show on HBO that has apparently had her appearing naked on in. So you can stream naked images of her from your local cable provider. I've not seen these naked pictures, because I turned the show (Girls) off after a few minutes. It's essentially the existential angst and first world problems of overeducated and underemployed young women in New York City. I thought they were a bunch of whiners.

Chance said...

Lena Dunham's comments are aspirational.

kjbe said...

There was nothing else of interest in the accounts??

Well, of course not - this was a crime of theft with the intent to exploit its victims for being female.

rcocean said...

First "Date Rape". Now:

Hacker Rape, Photo Rape.

Thence on to: Unconscious Rape and Institutional Rape.

chuck said...

Glad to see Lena Dunham doing her bit to encourage folks to look for the pictures. Somehow, I had gotten the impression she was some sort of humourless liberal.

JPS said...

So another thread in which people have put themselves in a position where an incredibly predictable, because extremely well-precedented, bad thing happens to them.

Someone points out how predictable and avoidable it was, and the outraged response is that he's blaming the victim.

Well, I feel bad for these women. That doesn't make Gervais wrong. Arguably he's insensitive, but that too doesn't make him wrong.

Fritz said...

It's illegal to break into houses and steal the silver, but it's still stupid to leave the door unlocked.

tim maguire said...

Ricky may have been victim blaming, but the victim often plays a key role in their victimization and there's nothing wrong with pointing that out.

What was the practical reason for putting these nude pics on iCloud? To send them to people. Well, they were sent to people. That's the internet for you.

fivewheels said...

"I get real suspicious when coincidence align."

I wouldn't be too suspicious. My best guess is that the culprit gained access to thousands of accounts, and these were just the 20 or so celebs who had racy photos. No need to leak someone's boring pictures of their eggs benedict or their dogs.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

I haven't read the whole thread, but has anyone pointed out that Gervais said "celebrities," as opposed to "women"? Is no one out there lusting after nude pics of male film stars?

fivewheels said...

MDT, Justin Verlander is catching some hell for the pictures he's in with Upton -- mocking and ridicule. (Somewhat deservedly, and I mean that good-naturedly as a fan of his.) No one's weeping for him, of course, because he's not considered a born victim by the enlightened.

damikesc said...

This wasn't one leak. These were pics that hackers had been taking for a while now. As somebody said, no one person had access to all of the photos.

MadisonMan said...

I wish people would stop saying "the Cloud" and replace it with "Someone else's server."

Needs to be re-said.

If looking at the pictures makes you a sex offender, then I promise not to watch Dunham's show, so as not to view her naked and end up, somehow, on a sex offender list.

averagejoe said...

John Lynch said...
People who flaunt their lives in public don't always get to set the limits on how far the public can go.

The rules for being a celebrity are different than for everyone else. That's why they wanted to be celebrities.

Want privacy? Live a private life. It's easy to not be noticed.

9/1/14, 3:40 PM

This kind of thinking is warped. Just because one is an actor or actress, or an athlete or politician or public figure of some kind, does not abrogate their rights to privacy. People do not become famous because they want the world pawing through their underwear drawer, or because they want to be stalked by deranged fans. Fame is oftentimes a by-product of success, and not chosen by the now-famous. They are not flaunting their lives in public, they are excelling at their chosen profession. This kind of thinking is exactly the "short skirt means you want to be raped" mindset. So, if Peyton Manning didn't want me to interrupt his family dinner asking for autographs and telling him he sucked in the Super Bowl, then he should have gone and worked in hardware store and not become a record-setting quarterback in the NFL, or maybe he shouldn't be so damn good at it, then no one would care about him. But by setting records and winning championships, he was just asking for trouble. Same thing with you Robert DeNiro. You shouldn't have been such a good actor, then I wouldn't be following you around. You were asking for it. Unless you want to be robbed, raped and murdered, then you better not do anything that will draw attention to yourself, otherwise you know, it's just what you signed up for...

MadisonMan said...

did you really think Dunham had the smarter comment? In what way did you think it was smarter?

Given that much of the tweet-o-sphere outrage factory lives on the left side of the political spectrum, her tweet was smarter in that it was less likely to foment pseudo-outrage and blowback against the tweeter.

Gervais' tweet is smarter only if he's trying to get followers. Maybe he is.

damikesc said...

I have a teenage niece who sent nude pics to older men online. I told her that it was an incredibly stupid decision and that her pic will be all over the place and she can likely never fix that.

You can say it isn't fair --- but common sense should be held more.

News flash: Hot famous young women, putting nude pics on any format that anybody can possibly remotely access it is a problem.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

(Prof Althouse) I'm just not impressed by the whinings of celebrities who were profligate with their sexts. They are not the backbone of society.

somefeller said...

John Lynch says:Want privacy? Live a private life. It's easy to not be noticed.

Yeah, how dare those celebrities be offended by having their private accounts hacked. They were asking for it! Maybe next you can tell us how people who have credit cards have only themselves to blame if they are financially hacked. They could go cash-only after all.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

(Prof Althouse)...we as a society have no reason to facilitate their choices, especially their destructive choices.

I know people like their private sexts, but the expectation that the rest of us will save them from consequences is pathetic. I heartlessly laugh in their face.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Really, celebrities need to keep track of their private sexual images. One way or another.
Don't be a sext stooge.

Birches said...

Brett Favre's penis was leaked a few years ago, but I don't seem to remember The Outrage Machine&#0153 rearing up to defend his honor.

Anonymous said...

" Kevin said...
Actually one of the lamest posts I've seen on this blog. Also hard to square with the, what I thought was relatively convincing, argument you made about men actively choosing letting go of the custody of their sperm, and the consequences thereof being just and fair."

I was going to make the same point, but decided to read through the comments first.

You beat me to it!

How does the professor square the two positions?

fivewheels said...

Hoodlum, you are right to point out that the professor appears to be failing to check her female privilege here. (Unless she really does mean "smarter" in the sense of better p.r., which is conceivable.)

Does anyone here doubt that if the perps had released only Brett Favre-style dick pics (and that pic was released, you know), that the reaction would be far, far different?

John henry said...

I wonder if this is one of those "Don't throw me in the briar patch" moments?

Of the 100 names I'd heard of maybe a dozen. So, free publicity for them. Being outraged about it? Just more free publicity.

I looked at some of the pictures. Pretty tame the ones I looked at.

Yeah, tits and ass but nothing they don't show in their movies. So, too bad they got hacked but if they are going to get naked on camera, they should expect this.

Doesn't make it right, but neither does leaving my car unlocked make the thief right. It just makes me stupid and carless.

John Henry

Birches said...

somefeller,

I do blame my mother for her CC info being stolen when she clicks on random weirdo ads on the internet and then proceeds to buy something. Or follows the advice of the "Windows Computer" Guys who phone. So please, spare the faux outrage. Don't store your naked photos on the cloud! Someone might hack them.

Apparently, Deadspin is posting Verlander's naked butt pictures. The Outrage Machine has no comment.

Birches said...

boston.com is also linking to the Verlander butt pic.

Popville said...

John Nowak said:
>> I wish people would stop saying "the Cloud"
>> and replace it with "Someone else's server."

+10

Big Mike said...

Even MadMan doesn't completely get it. The state of the practice for Cloud security can be compared to having a locker at the gym which is secured, not with a padlock or combination lock, but with a couple strips of blue masking tape. Maybe with a sign that says "potentially interesting but very private things inside -- please keep out."

Quasimodo said...

common sense has died

Lewis Wetzel said...

There is something so twee about attractive, shallow celebs taking naked selfies and sending them to one another.

Joe said...

However true Gervais' comment is, don't forget that Apple assured everyone that their service was secure. Unfortunately, most people aren't aware of Apple's history of not giving a shit.

Original Mike said...

How is Gervais' comment out of line? Damn obvious if you ask me.

Anonymous said...

They didn't put them on their computer. They put them on someone else's computer i.e. the Cloud" which is even more stupid.

I never bought into the cloud marketing, but other ppl did. I just figured it was a FB generation thing where they were used to 24/7 porn culture and lack of privacy from birth.

In other news, Wow, is Kate Upton's boyfriend ugly or what? She's freaking Kate Upton's. She should be with someone far better looking.

Skipper said...

She who lives by fashion, dies by lack thereof.

YoungHegelian said...

Wow, is Kate Upton's boyfriend ugly or what?

Jeez, SOJO, don't be so judgemental! Maybe he's hung like a moose or can lick his eyelashes with his tongue or somethin'!

Or, maybe he's just a fundamentally decent guy who loves her & really looks out for her, something far rarer in the circles she lives in than a pretty boy.

n.n said...

Is it time for another Slut Walk?

Was individual dignity lost in the civil rights "businesses", where people are judged and exploited by the color of their skin?

Was individual dignity lost in the abortion clinics, where human bodies decompose and clog the nation's plumbing?

Was individual dignity lost at the Democrat Party, where it is policy and principle to denigrate individual dignity and devalue human life for political leverage?

Finally, in cases other than premeditated murder for pleasure (aka "the choice"), when have Progressive\Liberals and other "decent" people embraced the right to privacy? Let alone the dignity of women and children (and men) with whom they disagree?

That said, I agree with Dunham and Gervais. Progressive morality is a threat to individual liberty and welfare.

buwaya said...

It is quite possible to keep "unbreakable" encrypted files in the cloud (AES whatever you like) with decrypt/encrypt at your end. I don't know why everybody isn't already doing this.

YoungHegelian said...

While I, too, have criticized these actresses for storing such photos on iCloud, I think we all need to remember something:

iCloud is used only for Apple products. Those photos may have been backed up automatically to the cloud, and the hardware owners may have not known it was happening.

I have pulled "lost" files off the iCloud multiple times that the owners didn't know was even being backed up at all.

Anonymous said...

Celebrity or normal woman, they all look the same upside down.

Peter

Beldar said...

Something may be tasteless, or crude, or immoral — and also directed at a woman — without it thereby becoming sexual assault.

Calling the viewing of a photograph, even a purloined one never intended to be shared, "sexual assault" is insulting to the victims of actual sexual assaults, which in both legal terms and common parlance involves unwanted sexual touching.

Sam L. said...

That Ricky! I'll bet he even recommends that date-rape-drug-detecting nail polish! Such a Neanderthal.

Even though Obama says it too, Don't Do Stupid Stuff is not misogynist/raaaaacist/homophobic.

chickelit said...

Lena Dunham is a secondary sex offender. I would never google photos of her (gross) but I have to listen to and deal with creeps who do and who enjoy it and who praise her. That's offensive and so she's an offender, albeit in the second degree.

fivewheels said...

"Or, maybe he's just a fundamentally decent guy who loves her & really looks out for her..."

JV does seem like a decent dude. On the other hand, maybe it's because she's a sports fan from Michigan and he is (was?) one of the best players of this century with a $180 million contract. Possibly a factor.

tds said...

it's not smart vs. stupid. it's practical vs useless.

It's Gervais who is practical.

PS

- security is hard
- we all know it now
- make informed decision next time. don't bitch about it later

Anonymous said...

Annnnnnnnddddd......

How does it feel to be judged for just your looks?

Thanks for playing.

Bob Ellison said...

There's a guy on FNC, Greg Gutfeld or some spelling like that, who regularly calls for banning phrases.

"Thanks for playing" will be up soon, I think.

If you have a point to make, make it. "Thanks for playing" is like "I failed to have sex."

Jose_K said...

There is web site were photos of unknown women are posted as "revenge". One of them has tried to stop the diffusion of her photos to no avail,freedom of expression was the excuse. Where was the FBI?For those women , teh dammage is real. Most of these celebrities have been naked in photos and even in public places
Why the outrage about JLaw ´photos ? Rihanna , Hilton and many other´s photos have released in recent years. And there were 100 more celebrities this time
The day of her birthday, SI published a photo of Upton in Bodypaint, two days later, they realized they were showing her fully naked .No scandal .
Not upload ? The Pamela Anderson- Tommy Lee sex tape was in VHS and was stolen from a safe

Jose_K said...

Wow, is Kate Upton's boyfriend ugly or what?
He has a contract for 184 MM to pitch for the Tigers until 2019 with a vesting option for 2020

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
richard mcenroe said...

I have no real problem with celebrity nude pics but no celebrity has ever agreed to pose with me.

And is Lena Dunham still a celebrity? It's been what, seventeen minutes now?

n.n said...

Gervais is suggesting that people secure their privacy. That they should recognize liberty is accompanied by risk. Life, after all, is an exercise in risk management.

Dunham fails to acknowledge that there are criminals and degenerates. Men and women who not only ignore moral standards but proscriptive laws too...

These men and women have a singular interest in instant or immediate gratification. Their peculiar dysfunction. In fact, they are quite capable of selectively ignoring civil and human rights after their needs are met.

So, this is where progressive morality and political opportunism has left us. Selective respect of individual dignity. Selective acknowledgement of intrinsic value. Creation of moral hazards. Progressive corruption.

MadisonMan said...

I wonder if the images on my iPad go to the cloud automatically. I guess I should look.

No nudity in them, just home improvement pictures.

n.n said...

Whether on semi-public servers or on private systems, the best advice is to encrypt sensitive, personal information. Or, better yet, limit your exposure, literally. We have already seen that privacy can be abused at the highest levels (e.g. IRS), and is not limited to opportunistic perversions. Life is an exercise in risk management.

kimsch said...

Says Lena Dunham who put her own self out there nekkid all over HBO.

No, the smarter comment was, if you don't want nude photos getting out, don't take nude photos.

I you don't want the sex tape getting out, don't do a sex tape.

Period.

Original Mike said...

"I wonder if the images on my iPad go to the cloud automatically. I guess I should look."

One of the first things I set when I got my iPad. Not that I'd be amazed if it's happening anyway. It's so difficult to know for sure. (I consider it a known unknown.)

William said...

And yet Lois Lerner's emails cannot be found. Lerner could make a fortune with a tech start up that promises to protect the privacy of your Internet photos and observations.

Chuck said...

Ricky Gervais leads the world, 1-nil.

iowan2 said...

I remember my father explaining to my younger sister, around the mid 70's, never allow nude or risque pictures to be taken of her. No matter what the level of trust or love......unless she was fine with her parents,siblings,friends,and enemies have a look too. Because even if she thinks she has total and complete control....she did't.

People that do that( I have) want those pics to be seen by others. I have zero sympathy.

Actions have consequences,always.

Chuck said...

Now, this business of hacking nude celebrity photos stored in the cloud -- is that a microaggression or a macroaggression?

Auntie Ann said...

I have a friend who used to use DropBox for her work files...until someone else's files showed up in her account. If it could happen to them, she thought, it could happen to her, or you.

Auntie Ann said...

MadisonMan...just home improvement pictures.

DIY porn is the worst!

dustbunny said...

Lenny Bruce said" "there is no 'what should be' there is only what is. Bruce was a realist, Dunham is just predictable.

Ann Althouse said...

My casual choice to use the word "smarter" really provoked a reaction!

I could just have easily written "I prefer LD's tweet."

But people are so touchy about anything that suggests an actual comparison of IQs. A lot of pride and anxiety at that location, I suspect.

Paco Wové said...

Now it's obvious you're trolling.

Larry J said...

Crimes are always the fault of the criminals but only a fool makes it easy for them. If you leave your keys in the car and the doors unlocked, the thief is still at fault even though you're an idiot. If you drink yourself stupid, it's still the fault of the rapist even though you're a moron for putting yourself in danger like that. And if you put photos of yourself "into the cloud" (on someone else's server) that you don't want others to see, it's still the fault of the hacker but you were stupid for doing so. You might as well walk around the worst parts of town flashing a lot of money. It's still the criminals' fault but you shouldn't go through live making it easy to be victimized.

jr565 said...

IT's not either or. The person hacking the material and posting it is clearly wrong. But celebrities are stupid not locking this down so that hackers don't get access to it.
So, they're both right. Gervais is smarter though.

jr565 said...

To tie it into another conversation, if you don't want to get tased by cops don't act in ways in which cops will tase you. If you think cops are people who will arrest you at the drop of a hat and violate your rights don't act in ways which will make it easy for them to do it. Cooperate.
Similarly, don't park your lamborghini in the middle of Harlem. Don't act like a tourist when walking around in the middle of Watts. Don't dress like a prostitute and then walk down a dark alley.

This is not to say that those who hurt you are right. Only, you can do things that put you in danger. Celebrities are people who other people want access to. And paparazzi will stalk outside their house to get a shot of them they can sell.
And so, if there is risk of embarrassment, don't take pictures that would embarrass you that might get out. If you do, take good care that they don't.

How many celebrities made sex tapes that are now out on the internet which have ruined (or in some cases made) their careers?

jr565 said...

kimsch wrote:
Says Lena Dunham who put her own self out there nekkid all over HBO.

No, the smarter comment was, if you don't want nude photos getting out, don't take nude photos.


Clearly though, Lena wanted her nakedness to be displayed since she's so sure to show it every episode.
It's just the rest of us that don't want to see it.

tim in vermont said...

I agree about 'the cloud.' It is somebody else's server, period, end of story. No different than yours except that lots of people need access to it to keep it going.

You can complain about robbers if you leave your jewelry in your car overnight in plain sight, but don't expect overwhelming sympathy. The world is what it is and complaining about it will not change the fundamentals of human nature.

tim in vermont said...

It is funny to hear a socialist like somefeller complain about lack of privacy. Look at Venezuela where you will now have to produce fingerprints to buy groceries because, you know, socialism works so great!

averagejoe said...

William said...
And yet Lois Lerner's emails cannot be found.

9/1/14, 10:20 PM

Exactly what I was thinking. The public needs to see every word of IRS and Obama administration correspondence. The fact that we still don't have that information is proof of wrong-doing. Are these criminals going to get away with the crimes because the democrat party holds such power over the media of our country? Is there not a single reporter seeking a source who will expose the cover-up taking place? There isn't one democrat party member with a conscience willing to reveal the truth?

TosaGuy said...

In the profession of law, words mean things.

TosaGuy said...

In the profession of law, words mean things.

gerry said...

I wish people would stop saying "the Cloud" and replace it with "Someone else's server.

Remember, those people are smarter than everybody else. Everybody. else.

ken in tx said...

The exaggerated use of the word Rape is not new. Has no one heard of "The Rape of the Lock"? However, Pope knew he was exaggerating. I don't think some of these new ones do.

cubanbob said...

David said...
So Cuban Bob? Insurance companies can now decline to pay if you don't lock your door or shut your window? You should call Elizabeth Warren and let her know.
9/1/14, 4:51 PM

Read your policy before making stupid comments. Hint: it's called moral hazard, an insurance term for having skin in the game.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Geez, people. You are not celebrities. Their lives have nothing to do with yours. The coincidence that we all know who they are has no larger meaning.

Admitting that different rules apply to different groups of people seems to be very difficult. This isn't about privacy for everyone. Privacy for people who have chosen to live very public lives is an issue for a very small group of a few thousand in a world of seven billion. And yes, they chose the life. You don't get there without trying very hard and being very lucky. It's not something that just happens, nor is it something that can happen to any of us.