"An Ohio woman is demanding $20 million from Yahoo for allegedly using a photo of her without her permission for a welcome e-mail sent to new users."
Shannon Stovall, upon signing up for a yahoo account was sent a welcome email in which she found a picture of herself to be the image of. This email offers tips to all new users of yahoo, and has been sent to millions of people and they are viewing this picture of Stovall, that she did not give permission to be used in their advertisement. So should yahoo be able to use Stovall's picture to advertise their email tools? In my opinion I do not think that Stovall has the right to sue yahoo for the use of her picture without permission. We now live in a world of which there is no place to hide. We all have a lowered right to privacy in the world in which we live, and therefore she does not hold the right to this image of her. I do not think that yahoo has overtaken her right to control the commercial use of her identity. Within the generation that we live, we have all created a digital identity that exposes us, and usually without our knowledge. Every time that you go to the ATM you are allowing yourself to be captured on video, and every time that you enter a building you are caught on their security camera. We are all agreeing to a lowered expectation of privacy when we do not put up a fight regarding the capturing of our images on a daily basis. With Stovall at one point having been a model, who knowingly exposed images of herself, in my opinion lost her case right there. You can not willingly expose yourself in some instances and expect others to respect your right to privacy in other instances. In the world that we live in we are all subject to a lowered expectation of privacy, including Shannon Stovall. I do not think that Stovall has a legitimate case against Yahoo for the use of her photograph in their advertisement. Stovall has willingly exposed herself in many other instances, and as a result of this overexposure she was captured in a photograph, that Yahoo can rightfully use.
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I see what your saying...however, some would argue that having your identity recorded in certain instances, such as on a security camera, is rationalized by balancing safety for privacy. Indeed, we live in a society that has a reduced sense of privacy, but I'm not sure if Yahoo's actions will fall within this accepted realm (they were pretty drastic). Although being a former model will not help her case. It will be an interesting case to follow.
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