to refuse to have my photo on the intranet at work?

[wowfudge]

I've received an email today which says the company I work for is setting up an intranet page for HQ (where I work) which will have everyone's name, job role and contact details on it and we are to provide a suitable photo to go on there. The purpose is so that those people in the wider company who have dealings with us can put a face to a name. We've been given a deadline to comply with this.

I am really not comfortable with this as I don't really know why anyone I only deal with over the phone or by email gives a monkeys what I look like or what difference it makes. When employees from around the company visit here, they tend to seek out the people they deal with and introduce themselves. I also have concerns that someone could use my photo for some other purpose without my knowledge. Plus I am not confident about my looks at the moment and don't want my fat face on there for all to see.

What do you think MNetters? Does anyone in HR know what my rights are on this? I feel pressurised to do something I don't want to do and would like to know how to deal with it.

With very little technical know-how it would be very easy for someone to copy an intranet image and disseminate it more widely on the internet; those of you pointing out the difference between the two must surely be aware of that?

But why would they want to?

Heck, I could go out to the nearby river with a bag of kittens and a couple of bricks. I have the physical ability to do this, but I don't, because I've got no reason to. Your colleagues could Ctrl-I and extract the photo from a webpage even with right-click disabled in the code, but they've got no reason to. If you've got so little faith in your colleagues that they'd start posting your photo elsewhere, then you're in the wrong job.

More poignantly, if you don't trust your company with your data, then they employed the wrong person, and should rectify that, either with education or a P45.

I'm amazed that your ID cards don't have photos yet, to be honest. Not very good ID cards without actual identification. I had photo ID in college, university, on my passport, my driver's licence, railcard, union memberships, bank accounts, and yes, I had to provide photographs for work.

MBT1987 my sodding bank details aren't on the intranet, nor are my personal details such as my home address for 2000 plus people to see! Only a handful of people, at most, have access to the information.

Caitlin - I'm not breaching any policy should I choose to refuse.

Blistory - you're right; I wouldn't expect my concerns to be dealt with as a disciplinary offence, far from it.

In case it wasn't massively clear from the above, yes, YABU - you're accusing your coworkers and peers of possibly maybe doing something malicious at some point, and have used that as an excuse to throw a wobbler and defy your superiors. Expect the policy on photographs to be clarified very quickly and sharply, then try the same arguments. They won't wash.

And don't forget to say cheese!

OP PLEASE tell me what information (apart from your face, which any of your colleagues could see) will be on intranet which will be a risk?

MBT1987 - 'education or a P45'. You sound really unreasonable. There is a risk; that is one of my concerns. Doesn't mean I distrust my colleagues or the company, just that I don't want to run that risk. Why should I?

Actually, your bank details will be on the company network. Not as openly as your photo will be, but they'll be there. That information will be needed by more than one person, and the fastest way to share that information is through a network.

Heck, all someone would need to do to get access to your bank account, home address, etc, would be to find the most socially awkward member of staff in HR/payroll, flutter their eyelashes, get in close, and when they excuse themselves to go to the toilet/grab a drink, grab their computer. Almost as easy would be to find the oldest staffer's username, and try their password as "password". Maybe "password1".

Your photo is almost guaranteed to already be on the Internet, completely out of your control, your work's control. You may not use Facebook, but I bet everyone you know does. Have any of those people ever been at the same party as you?

Arrrrghhh I don't understand. WHAT IS THE RISK?

^^^^ THIS.

What are these potentially evil employees going to do to your photo? Draw a giant swirly moustache on it?

@ "defy your superiors"

OP - send one of the back of your head

We were allowed to provide avatars instead of photos, so long as our manager approved them as a reasonable likeness.

PiperRose - are you being obtuse? Plenty of OPs have pointed out some of the risks, sometimes with anecdotal evidence. These may be very small risks, but they do exist. I'm not saying someone will use my photo for some purpose other than that which it is provided for, but I don't want to facilitate that.

MBT1987 - got my own moustache without the need for that. I have never said anyone is potentially evil - you are reading that in to the situation because you don't agree with my reluctance to put my photo on the intranet! I would hope that any company had better internal controls when it came to protecting payroll information. Think you've been watching too many films .

YABU. And paranoid. It's just your face. If a coworker was determined to modify a photo of you for some insane reason, they could snap you with their bloody camera phone. I have read your reasons for not wanting it, but I don't think any of them are reasonable. If i was your manager, I would think you were being precious and vain. I think you would be unreasonable to refuse. It's just a photo.

Actually, I worked in IT.

Enjoy picture day!

No, I'm not being obtuse. Yes there are stories of evil stalkers, but these are extremely rare, could happen to you in real life and shows (as I said) proves you are extremely distrustful of your colleagues.

If you're worried about risks you are more likely to be killed in a car crash than have a stalker, do you still get into cars?

If this is just about how you look (and I think it is) then you can work on your self-esteem.

have refused to allow my photo to be published on the intranet in the past. I've known too many people who have been stalked by a random weirdo who works in the same building to be comfortable with it

So you're saying that there are strange people employed by your company who habitually stalk women employees because of photos on your intranet? I'm amazed your employer isn't disciplining ie sacking them. And amazed you still work there if you feel under threat.

Nope - it's a combination of the three things I mentioned, plus being told to do so something in the terms it has been conveyed.

But the anecdotes above were about the INTERnet; not INTRAnet.

Why on earth would anyone want to faff about with your photo. YABU.

Hang on daisychain01 - just to clarify; it wasn't me who said that, plus 'in the same building' doesn't always mean they work for the same company.

But if they don't work for your company they won't have access to your intranet. So your photo being there is irrelevant to the potential stalker.

It's not just 'evil stalkers'

It's the jealous partner, the vindictive ex, the petty colleague, the office prankster etc.

It's reassuring on the one hand to see that so many don't suffer from any of the above but on the other, it demonstrates an inability to accept that it is the reality of some people's lives.

And if the possibility of any of that causes concern to an employee, they have a right to voice that concern and to be heard.

Fair enough if you're in an industry where it is expected that personal details will be available online but if it's a new policy then it's entirely reasonable to question it.

Yep - all those Blistory because you just don't know what might happen or who might pass on your photo in all innocence because they don't give it a second thought. I've met my share of nutters in life and been harrassed by an ex.

I would want an assurance that should I submit my photo for the intranet that the company will not use it for other purposes, e.g. on the company's internet site, because they've done that before, though not to me.

We had a couple of jokers at the office who cut and paste a secretary's picture and put it into a dating profile. Oh how we all laughed...not .

Reading some of these posts I'm seriously wondering whether some of you have been out of your houses in the last decade let alone in a workplace.

And as for all the "I'm not breaching company policy" or " it wasn't in my contract" employers are allowed to change things. Businesses are not run to accommodate every little whim of an employee.

Quite honestly there is a degree of narcissism being displayed which is breathtaking.

Oh get over yourself. It is a photo on an intranet. Every bloody company in the world has one. What on earth is someone going to use a grainy photo of you for???

YANBU - it can feel like an invasion of privacy by an employer who is insensitive to people's feelings.

I briefly worked in a job centre environment and remember we all vehemently objected to having our full names on badges. There was some concern about disgruntled clients being able to use this information to track us down and find out where we lived, but a major additional factor was the way the company went about it - just a blanket order with no respect for individual feelings.

The argument about other people needing to know what you look like doesn't particularly wash with me. In my experience, most people don't look like their photos in real life. We have a noticeboard at work where people have been allowed to submit their own photos and, what with all the soft focus and posing, most are unrecogniseable.