Blame Game: Who's At Fault In The Celeb Photo Hack?

By Kate Mueller on September 15, 2014

image via Softpedia

We are the selfie generation. We cannot get enough of it, whether it’s a selfie in class, a selfie in the car, or even a selfie au naturel.

It wasn’t too big of a shocker when sexy selfies of celebrities were leaked to the entire world, but I beg you to CLOSE YOUR EYES. Don’t look at or repost the photos.

The list of 100 celebrity women and one man (Dave Franco) was released and the world was told that these celebrity nudes were on the loose. The hackers were able to find out the celebrity passwords through the “Find My iPhone” app that offers an unlimited amount of tries to enter your password.

Since most people use the same password for multiple sites, the hackers were able to access their iCloud to grab the photos. iCloud began as a way for iPhone users to save the precious moments of life, yet turned out to be a privacy nightmare for these celebs.

The most disappointing thing about this photo leak is not the actual leak itself, but who is being blamed. The hacker should be taking most of the blame, but since we don’t know who it is, people are left saying:

image via weknowmemes.com

Blaming the hack on the fact that the celebrities even took the photos in the first place helps no one. If Jennifer Lawrence wants to take a sexy pic for her boyfriend, all power to her. We can tell by her lawyer’s statement that she is not taking this hacking lightly:

“This is a flagrant violation of privacy.The authorities have been contacted and will prosecute anyone who posts the stolen photos of Jennifer Lawrence.”

During the reveal of the iPhone 6, Apple announced higher security for iCloud. But is that enough? Apple says they’re investigating the hacking and trying to protect their iCloud users. Let’s just hope that the extra security protects us from anything like this happening again.

When it came to nude photos and sexting, our parents warned us of the dangers. You may be ‘in love’ with your boyfriend now and want to spice things up, but what happens to that sexy photo when you break up? If it’s a bad break up, that photo can easily be spread all throughout social media and the internet.

Basically, we are told to not trust someone we know, in order to not risk an embarrassing fiasco. We were never warned of a stranger getting access to our private photos.

As for these celebrities, they know the risk of sending nudes. They are high-profile people that know who to trust, and with what. They would not put their careers or names at risk; so clearly, these photos are something that they did NOT want released.

What is so bad about taking a nude photo?

Nudes are taken, generally, for two purposes.

1. To track body changes.

Celebrities constantly need to keep fit and thin or adjust their bodies for movie roles (like Charlize Theron did in Monster). Taking a photo of your body is an easy way to track your changes and see what you need to work on.

2. To keep things spicy.

Celebrities are constantly traveling and are constantly busy. This can get in the way of their love life in more ways than you can imagine, so sending a sexy pic is a way they can reconnect with their loved one long distance.

With Kim K, named the “trailblazer of the selfie movement,” releasing her compilation of selfies in her new book “Selfish,” the lines of celebrity privacy are blurred even more. The book is her idea of a perfect Valentine’s Day gift for her hubby Kanye West, but to us the whole idea of her releasing a selfie book is confusing to America.

She wants to share her life with the world, yet complains about paparazzi and privacy. So what are the lines of celebrity privacy? Some of the celebrities involved in the hack have left little to the imagination for some magazine covers and movie roles, so what’s the big deal that we see it again?

Now that social media lets us look into the everyday lives of celebrities, some people think this issue is not a big deal. However, there’s a huge difference between sharing a moment on Instagram and the stealing of an intimate photo. There’s a huge difference from being nude in a movie meant for an audience and releasing intimate photos only meant for their lover’s eyes.

The bottom line is that we should not be blaming these women (and Dave) for taking some risque, private photos.

They are not stupid, tacky or slutty. They are women (and man) taking pictures. It doesn’t matter whom the photos were meant for. It doesn’t matter why they took the photos. What matters is that we find the hacker and fix the mistakes. What matters is learning the boundaries of privacy and our basic rights.

But it probably wouldn’t hurt to have a more complicated password …

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