If you've ever taken a risque photo of yourself, you may be concerned about were it may end up.
Frequently we hear of horror stories in which private photos are uploaded online either as an act of revenge by a disgruntled former partner, or as a result of hacking.
Surely there must be a way to stop such depravity?
Well, a Government Group in Australia claim to have found a solution and are currently trialing the technology.
And strangely enough the method of preventing your private photos leaking online involves uploading them to social media yourself.
Sounds crazy I know...
Julie Inman Grant, an e-Safety Commissioner down under, explained the technology to the Australian Broadcasting Commission: "It would be like sending yourself your image in email, but obviously this is a much safer, secure end-to-end way of sending the image without sending it through the ether."
Once the image is sent via Messenger, Ms Inman Grant said Facebook would use technology to "hash" it, which means creating a digital fingerprint or link.
"They're not storing the image, they're storing the link and using artificial intelligence and other photo-matching technologies," she said.
"So if somebody tried to upload that same image, which would have the same digital footprint or hash value, it will be prevented from being uploaded."
So essentially it means that if someone tries to upload the same image, Facebook will be alerted and it won’t be able to be posted.
Kind of like how wildlife preservationists track an animal by tagging it... the e-safety commission would be aware of the image's location at all times.
If successful the trial will be spread to other countries in the world...here’s hoping it works!
