Intimate images of dozens of celebrities have leaked online by an anonymous hacker claiming to have stolen material from more than 100 actors and singers.
A user on the internet bulletin site 4chan began posting the images last Sunday, August 31, including nude photographs of Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence and Sports Illustrated model Kate Upton.
The release of the images has drawn varying responses from the celebrities, with some conceding they are real and others denying it.
The images appear to be private shots taken by either the actresses themselves, leading to speculation they have been stolen from the subjects’ own Apple iCloud iPhone or iPad-linked accounts.
It’s not just celebrities who have been stung by unsavoury pictures and videos being leaked online neither.
Revenge porn, which is when sexually explicit material is posted online without the consent of the pictured individual – usually at the hands of spurned ex-partners – has exploded in prominence in recent years.
Many of the images are selfies, with victims mostly being women, and has subsequenly caused a number of countries to make changes to the law to addres it.
With this in mind, MM took to the streets of Manchester to ask the following question:
Do you have indecent images on your computer or iCloud that you fear could be hacked?
| Yes | No |
| 53% | 47% |
Rachel Lefley, 24, from central Manchester, had naked photographs of her in a leading lads magazine despite promises from her company they would never be shared.
“I did the shoot as part of a healthy body image campaign,” the national 100 meter fly swimming champion said.
“The company I did it for told me that the pictures would never go anywhere, but then my boyfriend found them in the centre fold of Zoo magazine.Now they are all over the internet.”
Iain Smith, 40, admitted to sharing pictures on the internet file hosting service Dropbox with his partner, Dagmara Oboraj, 34.
NO RISKS: Jessica says she doesn’t post any pictures online
Iain from Ashton-Under-Lyme, Manchester, said, “There is so much porn out there that it is nothing really. We have all seen a penis. What is another one?”
Some members of the public did not know for certain if they did or did not have photographs of themselves online, but were not concerned even if there were.
James Faulkner, 22, a waiter from Prestwich, said: “We used to go on internet chatrooms to find men who we could do webcam chats with pretending we were girls.
“When we got them on cam I would moon them, then turn around and show them my tackle. Those pictures could be anywhere.”
Danny Niland, 29, a contractor working on The Footage pub on Oxford Road, said he does not have anything online, though was involved in posting naked pictures of a friend in the past.
“My mate passed out drunk at a party about a year ago,” he said.
“So we stripped him naked, took photos of him and posted it on Facebook with an emoticon covering his face.”
ON THE GRIND: Brionne was stung after posting raunchy snaps on Grindr
Twenty-four year old Stephanie Taylor of Droylsden did not have a choice neither, as her friends lifted up her skirt at a party and took a picture of her.
She said: “They put it on Facebook. I knew who it was and ranted at them trying to get them to take it down. After a while they did but I was so angry.”
Harpurhey bus driver Lee Mellor, 42, said he has no indecent images online, though he recoiled in horror when he found an embarrassing photo on Eagle Bar Manchester’s website.
“I was in Eagle one night and I saw their photographer,” he said.
“I asked him to take a picture of me and a friend but when I saw it online there was a massive urine stain down my leg.”
Children’s Hospital volunteer Brionne Campbell, 29, posted pictures of himself on dating app Grindr only to find them scattered around the app itself.
Brionne said: “I took some raunchy pictures of myself and sent them to another person on the app.
“Then I found another guy just using them for his own profile. I couldn’t believe it.”
FURIOUS: Stephanie saw red when friends lifted her skirt then took a picture
Health and clinical psychology student Laura Frost, 21, said that she would not take intimate images in fear they get onto the internet.
“It is not something that I have really thought about doing,” she said.
“I would not take naked photos of myself. If you do something like that you are always at risk of it spreading around the net.”
Jessica Ross, 22, from Middleton, did not have pictures online and thought it was too dangerous to do so as anyone could have access to the pictures.
The Manchester Metropolitan student said: “Places like Snapshot where you can take quick photos and send it over the internet are really unsafe because people can just take a screenshot and then copy and paste it to their friends.”
Alistair Brathwaite, 23, from Westminster, thought there was nothing wrong in making the images but he himself did not have anything online.
He said: “If I took pictures like that I would not want 99.99 per cent of people to see images them. A girlfriend, I wouldn’t mind. I would not like it on the internet though.”
Image courtesy of Mingle MediaTV, with thanks.
