Improper use of photos

Pictures of my family member were taken from Facebook and posted in the ward directory.
How can I prevent people from putting photos of me, and my family members, in the ward directory?

Speak to your bishop. From a technical standpoint, there's nothing to prevent someone who have rights to upload to the directory (the bishopric, clerks, executive secretary, ward website administrator) from doing this. So your best course of action is to make sure they all understand your wishes.

However, you do have control over the privacy settings and who can see your information. More details in the help help file.

russellhltn wrote:Speak to your bishop. From a technical standpoint, there's nothing to prevent someone who have rights to upload to the directory . . . from doing this.

But they need your consent to do it properly.

Speak to your bishop. From a technical standpoint, there's nothing to prevent someone who have rights to upload to the directory (the bishopric, clerks, executive secretary, ward website administrator) from doing this. So your best course of action is to make sure they all understand your wishes.

Someone who has rights?!?! So the church's stand on this is that local yahoos can put whatever they want and say it is a picture of me and there is nothing I can do about it?

Obviously it is not required to get my concent before posting.

Looking through the help, I don't see a privacy setting for nobody.

You would think that if this was a properly designed tool that there would be an option to allow the user to lock his/her items from being edited by others (the admin would then only be able to remove content, but not provide content)

alanmerrill wrote:Someone who has rights?!?! So the church's stand on this is that local yahoos can put whatever they want and say it is a picture of me and there is nothing I can do about it?

You can certainly remove the photo yourself. Go to the lds.org/directory, select My Household on the left hand side, click on the Edit button at the top of the right side, find the photo on the right hand side and click the Remove link below the photo.

alanmerrill wrote:Obviously it is not required to get my concent before posting.

By policy it is required and the Directory does have a (fairly large) section of text that shows up before a picture is uploaded that makes this clear. Unfortunately, people often get used to skipping by this kind of legal looking text. It's hard to protect against that.

However, I'm sure if you let your bishop know your wishes and also that you are dismayed that someone did not follow policy, he will make sure that everyone with admin rights (which isn't a large group) knows both your wishes and the policy.

alanmerrill wrote:Looking through the help, I don't see a privacy setting for nobody.

There are a number of privacy settings but you'll only see them for your own household (using the My Household view mentioned above). Click on the Edit button and you have the following options:

• Set all information about your household so that only leadership can see it (at the very top of the right hand section).
• Set your address, phone number and/or email address as only visible to leadership (below each of those items).
• Set your photo so it can only be seen by leadership (under the photo).

alanmerrill wrote:You would think that if this was a properly designed tool that there would be an option to allow the user to lock his/her items from being edited by others (the admin would then only be able to remove content, but not provide content)

I expect if this kind of thing happened often there would be such an option. But by and large people do follow the rules.

Someone who has rights?!?! So the church's stand on this is that local yahoos can put whatever they want and say it is a picture of me and there is nothing I can do about it?

Now, I'm not saying what was done is totally and completely wrong-headed, stupid and inappropriate, it certainly was, why not go to the Bishop and ask them why it happened. In fact, if it were me, I'd bring it up in a large priesthood setting like an opening exercises so that everyone in the room can understand that your local Bishopric is very loose in their ideas of peoples privacy, etc... Again, they very well may have said that if you don't have something uploaded by _date_ or don't do it yourself, we'll get one and post it, please let us know if you don't want us to do this.

But you do realize that you're calling the local Bishopric and/or Stake Presidency yahoos correct? I realize we're only seeing one side of the story, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt that they've asked over and over to have pictures voluntarily uploaded to the site. I'm always curious why members of the church have an issue with this. The only thing a picture can do is help us be a better community together. It's not like the pictures are being uploaded to a service that is generating money from add revenue. My guess is that people who feel this way have an internet connection where a local ISP is taking EVERYTHING about them and selling it to the highest bidder. They have no problem uploading to facebook, pictures of their families, where apparently any old 'yahoo' can download them... They have their tithes and offerings statement, their recommend status, other personal data about them...Seriously, how is there an issue that the church directory have a picture (that you voluntarily upload or have uploaded)?

I appreciate your post, eblood66.

Of course I have removed all the photos.
Of course I am only dealing with my family entries.
Of course there are settings to make the view limited.

My question is, and has always been, around preventing others from posting images of me (and my family) in the directory. I want NO photos. I am not looking to have photos with limited visibility.

As was illustrated in the first reply, the church is unwilling to secure such things.

I really don't want to have to login every week and check that someone has not upload more photos, but I guess that is part of enduring to the end.

thetallguy wrote:I really don't want to have to login every week and check that someone has not upload more photos, but I guess that is part of enduring to the end.

You can submit feedback with a suggestion to allow a lock down using any Feedback link on lds.org. The church does take privacy very seriously so your suggestion could very well be implemented eventually.

Something else you can do even now is to create an image with some text such as 'Please do not upload any picture for my family', upload that as your photo and set the visibility to leadership only. Normal members won't see it but leaders with admin rights will. It would not provide a technical barrier but I very much doubt any leader would then replace it with a real picture.

johnshaw,
Yes, I do realize am referring to

(the bishopric, clerks, executive secretary, ward website administrator)

as yahoos. I am not referring to them as leaders.
I do not want the church to associate my name with any image.
I want it to stop.

Excellent Idea about the "Don't Upload" photo, eblood66

This is the agreement every person who uploads a photo is required to click through. It comes up for every single photo, whether it be changing a photo or adding a new photo: Talk to your bishopric and ask them to remove the photo, and make sure they talk to whoever's been uploading photos to make sure they agree to comply with Church policy and the law regarding photos. Some people think that nobody will mind (or perhaps, nobody will find out) if their photo is uploaded, but they need to be awakened to the fact that yes, there are those who notice and care, and yes, you're breaking Church policy (and possibly the law) by ignoring the photo agreement.

thetallguy wrote:Excellent Idea about the "Don't Upload" photo, eblood66

I agree that that's a great idea. Below is an image you can use if you want. Ideally, everyone should read the photo upload agreement and comply with it, but you'll always have new clerks who don't pay as much attention as they should, and sometimes people need to be reminded in other ways.

In my efforts to get ward member photos, I've run across a few people who don't want their photos taken. I've actually thought of creating some kind of "don't upload" image like you suggest to help me remember who doesn't want their picture shown. I believe I also submitted feedback to add an option so that people can indicate they don't want their photo shown. It's not a lot of people, but it's hard for me to remember sometimes.

Anytime you are dealing with a large group of people, some will follow the rules and guidelines, and some will not. I'm not condoning those who do not follow the guidelines, just saying that it happens. And that is wrong and unfortunate. In my efforts as ward clerk, my role is to approve photos (make sure they are appropriate and meet the church standards) that have been submitted by the members themselves. It is not my place to assume that they want me to post pictures for them. Obviously if they ask me for help with submitting their photos I will assist, but that has never happened.

In fact our Bishop continues to emphasize the need and importance of organization leaders to obtain permission from the members (or if it is a youth, then their parent or guardian) before they post photos anywhere, including social media.

I agree with the suggestion to notify your Bishop or Branch President about what has happened. They have the responsibility and stewardship to watch over and ensure the privacy rights of each member in their ward or branch are being cared for. It is probably someone doing this that thinks they are helping, and the Bishop or Branch President should be able to find out very quickly who (not that many people will have permissions in the system to submit photos on behalf of another person) and put a stop to it.

Unauthorized Photo: Security Violation, Privacy Violation, possible DHS security violation.

Asked bishop, ward clerk, stake
clerk, to Remove Photo - a street picture of my home locked into Tools for my ward.
No one knew how to remove the photo, nor were they, or myself able to remove the photo.
This is a Personal Security Issue, which violates privacy laws and endangers my family and visitors.
If this is not enough, my military background required high level security .
We, as Members of The Church, And as American Citizens, have the right to control our own life, property and environment.
We, as members and even non-members, should have the ability to add/remove our personal information, within compliance/agreement.

garylamontc wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 3:20 pm Asked bishop, ward clerk, stake clerk, to Remove Photo - a street picture of my home locked into Tools for my ward.

I see two ways of resolving this issue.

One. Ask your ward clerk to contact the Global Services Department, explain the situation, and ask them to remove the photo.

Two. Add a new innocuous photo, such as a picture of a meetinghouse or a forest or meadow scene, and have your clerk approve it. The new photo will replace the existing photo.

garylamontc wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 3:20 pm Photo - a street picture of my home locked into Tools for my ward.

What photo are referring to? A photo that normally appears as the portrait of the member? Or is this is photo that appears when you look at the address? The latter is probably coming from some service like Google Maps. You'll have to contact that service to have the address blurred. Or, you can set your address privacy rights so only leadership can see it.

If it is a "person" photo, you can set the rights to "leadership only". Note that will the rollout of Mobile temple recommends, a personal photo will be required to use it.