Wife's nude pics on lost phone end up online

[I.A.S.K.]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I don't think that he earned or deserved what happened. I just don't think he should be able to hold someone else responsibly financially, especially to the tune of 3 millions dollars, for this.

I think we should go back to dueling pistols.

I also doubt some of the "facts" of the case and it colors my take no doubt. (What exactly did the manager promise? What did he actually do with the phone? Who really posted the photos and made the calls? Then, there's the question of how really damaging it was. The photos were up for 72 hours according to one report.)

One of my little hang ups in life is thinking that we try to make other people responsible for our errors too frequently. It seems like the guy's complaint on some level is that a third party failed to protect him from his own error and how someone else damaged him with his own error. It makes some sense to seek redress from the actual photo poster, but not from folks pretty far removed from the actual damaging acts.

What facts do you doubt? (just wondering)
I think the manager said he'd keep the phone until the guy could pick it up. I think he looked through the phone (being nosey) and found the pictures. Showed the pictures to other employees who uploaded them to the site and then they were texting and making those calls.

It could be extremely damaging. If your boss found nude pics of you online or found that you were even involved with a scandal like this then they could fire you or it could make working conditions so tense that you'd quit.

I think that even though he left his phone on the table because the pictures were on his phone (a private device not something public like facebook) there was an assumption of privacy (a privacy that you would assume would be protected when someone says they'll keep the phone safe for you). If his phone had been picked up by someone random guy then he'd sue the random person. Since his phone was picked up by the manager of the McDonalds he is suing McDonalds. The reason he can sue the company is because these people were acting as representatives of McDonalds when they did this. Thats why there are typically strict rules for most companies as to what you can do in your uniform. When you have the uniform on and are at work you are not just you. You're a rep for your company.

His complaint doesnt seem like he's blaming a third party for not protecting him from his own error. His error was losing the phone. He is not blaming them for his losing the phone. He's blaming them for taking private images from his phone and using them to harass and disgrace him and his wife. Unfortunately for McDonalds these employees are guilty of exactly that.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by I.A.S.K.

What facts do you doubt? (just wondering)
I think the manager said he'd keep the phone until the guy could pick it up. I think he looked through the phone (being nosey) and found the pictures. Showed the pictures to other employees who uploaded them to the site and then they were texting and making those calls.

It could be extremely damaging. If your boss found nude pics of you online or found that you were even involved with a scandal like this then they could fire you or it could make working conditions so tense that you'd quit.

I think that even though he left his phone on the table because the pictures were on his phone (a private device not something public like facebook) there was an assumption of privacy (a privacy that you would assume would be protected when someone says they'll keep the phone safe for you). If his phone had been picked up by someone random guy then he'd sue the random person. Since his phone was picked up by the manager of the McDonalds he is suing McDonalds. The reason he can sue the company is because these people were acting as representatives of McDonalds when they did this. Thats why there are typically strict rules for most companies as to what you can do in your uniform. When you have the uniform on and are at work you are not just you. You're a rep for your company.

His complaint doesnt seem like he's blaming a third party for not protecting him from his own error. His error was losing the phone. He is not blaming them for his losing the phone. He's blaming them for taking private images from his phone and using them to harass and disgrace him and his wife. Unfortunately for McDonalds these employees are guilty of exactly that.

His error, as I see it, wasn't just losing his phone; it was keeping photos that were this embarrassing in a form this accessible to other people with data about his name, address and phone number. And then he left this self-destructive time-bomb unsecured in a McDonald's. He had an obligation to protect himself before anyone else had an obligation to look after him.

In a perfect world, the store employee would have turned off the phone and locked it up until the customer came to get it, I agree.

But I don't think he's entitled to monetary damages from McDonald's.

The facts I doubt: that the manager actually promised to "secure" the phone in a way that guaranteed the guy's privacy, rather than just the phone wouldn't be left where it could be stolen, that no one else had access to the phone other than McDonald's employees, that the family really had to move because the woman had stalkers based on the information being posted for a couple of days. There's part of me that kind of thinks they may have manufactured this themselves.