http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/08/27/five-privacy-lessons-to-be-learned-from-prince-harrys-embarrassing-trip-to-vegas/ By Kashmir Hill Forbes.com 8/27/2012 If you’ve been following the coverage of Prince Harry’s recent trip to Las Vegas, you’re likely very, very tired of hearing jokes about the “crown jewels.” The day after one reporter (ironically) recounted the British prince remarking to a security guard that he “had to be careful or else he’d be ‘up on Twitter or Facebook or YouTube thanks to somebody’s mobile phone camera,’” photos of the prince sans princely attire were published on TMZ, thanks to somebody’s mobile phone camera snapping away during a game of ‘strip billiards.’ The photos spread faster, farther and wider than the British Empire during its heyday, leading to some pity for a 27-year-old who seems to have difficulty steering clear of social media scandals. News Corp titan Rupert Murdoch urged on Twitter to, “Give him a break. He may be on the public payroll one way or another, but the public loves him, even to enjoy Las Vegas.” Ironically, that was the day after the News Corp-owned Sun published the photos in its newspaper, despite warnings from the Royal Family’s lawyers that it would violate press and privacy laws. The Sun argued that the photos are already very much in the public domain, and that publishing them is thus no longer a privacy violation. (TMZ and the phone photographer took care of that.) It’s yet another example of Britain’s byzantine press privacy laws struggling to keep up with a world in which information is very difficult to contain, as when a Scottish newspaper flouted a “superinjunction” on the press not to reveal the identity of a soccer star involved in a sex scandal after his identity became widely known thanks to Twitter. You are not Prince Harry. Naked photos of you and tales of your partying ways probably won’t fetch a pretty penny from gossip blogs, but we all do live in a world where our foibles can go public rather easily. The prince’s folly offers up some privacy lessons that could be relevant to you, even if you don’t have royal blood flowing through your veins. [...]Received on Tue Aug 28 2012 - 01:51:06 PDT
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