Photography is a form of art and content creation which is very individualistic and differs from professional to professional. Many photographers capture images of things that they connect with or things they can relate to or things that they idealize. Hence, it is a very personal approach that each photographer employs to come up with their pictures.
The internet has provided the photographers with a global platform to exhibit their work and allow users from the different parts of the world to visit, appreciate and critique their photographs. With the increasing use of websites and internet, there is increase in the number of security breaches occurring on websites and photographer’s sites are no different. Rather than textual content, these websites need to secure photographic content.
If you are a budding photographer or a firm that displays photographs of other professionals and maintain a website for the same then be sure to invest in an up to date, good security system. What is the need to pay attention to securing your website, you may ask. we are here to answer all your queries.
So here we go through the top reasons why photographers need to keep their websites secure.
- Copyright Infringement
Copyright Infringement is the top reason why photographers need to secure their website. Many website owners wish to take a shortcut to good content and find it easier to lift content off other websites and claim it as their own and display the content on their webpages. In case of photographer websites, they copy pictures taken by a photographer and display them on their site without giving any credit to the original photographer. This violates the copyright that the photographer has on the picture clicked by him or her. This is not only a theft of content but also a disregard for the hard work that the photographer did in order to capture that shot. Although there is no fool proof method to avoid illegal copying, there are methods that act as deterrents against it.
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- Creating a Mosaic is the process of splitting your pictures into smaller pictures and then re-adjusting them together to form the original picture when putting it on your website. The process is time consuming but increases the effort required to steal the image, hence reducing cases of copying the image.
- Degrading the Image Quality can make the picture less attractive and hence prevent copying
- Using a watermark on the images makes it difficult to use the picture without the watermark, and the watermark gives due credits to the original photographer or company.
- Disabling the option to right click can be achieved by making use of JavaScript and is an easy way to prevent pictures from being saved by a user
- Website Security
Many websites act as portfolios for freelance photographers or for photography-based firms and companies. As a company or a website owner it becomes essential to take care of the security of the website. It helps to gain the trust of customers and increases website traffic as a positive word of mouth draws many more customers to the website. Also, it is important to keep transactions secure and ensure that all confidential company and customer data is appropriately encrypted and transmitted. Absence of such security measures can make the website vulnerable to malware attacks and denial of service attacks.
One effective way to ensure security is to get your website SSL certificate which protects the website and sensitive information like credit card details, login forms and more. SSL (standard security protocol) establishes encrypted channel between web server and browser. The communication happens between a web server and browser(s) remains encrypted and hence private. If you have more than one website, buy Multi domain SSL Certificate. This single certificate secure main domain and several SAN (Subject Alternative Name) domain name. You don’t need to buy separate SSL for each domain which saves time and money.
- Securing the Data
Data security is an important aspect of any website. As a website owner it is your responsibility to safeguard any data related to the website and prevent them from being misused.
The best way to prevent security breach of data is to use virtual private networks which protect the connection between the device and the internet and keeps it safe from the eyes of attackers waiting for an opportunity to launch an attack.
- Customer Interest
Finally, the website is for the customers and hence the owner is fully responsible for the security of all the data provided by the customer. The most critical of these is the transactional data, hence the best option is to outsource the payment procedure to a trusted third party, like PayPal. Be sure to read reviews and research thoroughly before trusting any third party.
The above reasons are the main key points to be kept in mind while putting up pictures and original photography content on a website. Making sure that your website is secure reassures the safety of your pictures and snapshots, safeguards your data as well as your customer’s data and helps create a reputation of the website and an increased level of trust among the customers.
So, go ahead and utilize the power and reach of the internet to expand your business or showcase your talent to people across the world, but with a little precaution. It is better to be safe than sorry and keep security systems up to the mark and discourage any sort of web scraping, infringement of copyrights or any other sort of theft of content from your website.
