Naked City
Hot Pix Swap at Walgreens?
By Jordan Smith, Fri., April 2, 2004
Additionally, the suit alleges, the photos were given to employees at a third store, on Research Boulevard, where "the photographs were shown and circulated to many employees of that Walgreens store, including supervisors and managers." The lawsuit does not reveal details of how the two women discovered that their photos had been shared so widely, but Howard said that a former Walgreens employee, who resigned out of disgust, approached him with details of the ongoing scheme. "One of their employees came to me absolutely repulsed by what was going on," he said.
Howard alleges that photo lab employees at the Research store had a file containing more than 150 sexually oriented photos taken by customers that were kept in an unlocked cabinet where store employees could access them at any time. The photos ranging from a backyard bathing-suit shot to a picture of a young woman in a tub surrounded by rose petals to explicit shots of couples having sex were all made available without the knowledge or permission of the individual customers, Howard said, and he still doesn't know what else the employees may have done with them.
"The full scope of the dissemination by Walgreens and its employees of the sensitive and personal photographs is unknown," he wrote in the legal petition. "A.G. is understandably concerned that her private photographs may be sold for profit, posted on the Internet, and/or distributed among members of the Austin community." The suit charges Walgreens and three individual employees with negligence, invasion of privacy, and violations of the state's Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Walgreens corporate spokesman Michael Polzin said that the company is "deeply concerned" about the allegations and has begun its own internal investigation. He said that Walgreens has been in the photo developing business for nearly 100 years and that its stores develop nearly 2 billion photos each year. "First and foremost, we respect our customers' rights to privacy," he said, and copying customer photographs is a "clear violation" of store policy. Polzin said that all photo-lab employees, including managers, are required to acknowledge the company's privacy policy each time they log onto photo-lab computers. He said that the policy, which automatically appears on the computer screen, says in part that "all photos are the property of the customer" and that prints should not be made "for any other reason" than for sale to a customer. "For something like this to happen is extremely unusual."
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