There are a lot of differences between Jennifer Lawrence and myself. For starters, she’s 4 inches taller than me. She wears a larger dress size. Her feet are bigger than mine. And she has significantly less privacy than I do.

As the celebrity nude photo scandal progresses, more photos are surfacing and more reasons to question our security and privacy are popping up. Celebrities including Lawrence, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kate Upton and Kim Kardashian have fallen victim to the disastrous vulnerability of the Internet.

This scandal should serve as two very important lessons: first of all, be safe on the Internet. This means watch out for phishing, don’t give out your login credentials, and keep an eye out for scams. Second, and most importantly, keep your private parts private.

Honestly, there’s no need to take a photo of yourself with nothing on. Sending it to your significant other? Tell him or her to come and get it instead. Looking good today? Cool, take a mental snapshot. You don’t need your friend seeing that when she scrolls through your photos on your phone.

According to an Oct. 1 Page Six article, “over a dozen female actresses, models and athletes” are planning a potential $100 million lawsuit against Google regarding the searchable images.

Marty Singer, a Hollywood lawyer, wrote a letter to the head business executives at Google, citing his support of the potential lawsuit against Google for its failure to take down images and for earning “multimillions of dollars on a weekly basis over the rights and protections of individuals.”

Google, in response, has removed leaked photos from its social counterparts — YouTube, Blogger and Google Plus — but only because the images violate community standards, according to an Oct. 3 BBC article. Google said it will take a different approach with its search engine and will remove images when they see a copyright violation.

Another trait I don’t have in common with Lawrence is her influential voice and outreach. In this case, it works both for her and against her. While everyone who watches movies will be interested in seeing a naked photo of her, she has the ability to demand that something needs to done about the existence of those photos. She can make someone pay for this leak, and that person will pay big.

As non-celebrities, you and I do not have this upper hand. Remember that millions of people care if a nude, personal and private photo of a celebrity is available through an easy Google search. Nude photos won’t become news if they’re stolen from you. They’ll just be embarrassing, hurtful and damaging. And you won’t be able to pressure Google to take them down.

Lawrence is more popular than me. The odds of her accounts’ security being breached are obviously much larger than mine. While celebrities face a bigger risk of being hacked, we normal people have to be more careful of who we share our personal images with.

Save the goods for when you’re with someone in real life — in person. It won’t be so sexy when everyone can see it.

The nude photo leaks are essentially a sex crime. This is real. Lawrence and I both face the risk of having our personal identities being exploited at the hands of Internet users. The only difference is that J-Law’s boobs are more famous than mine.

Georgie Silvarole is a sophomore newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears weekly. You can reach her at gmsilvar@syr.edu or on Twitter at @gsilvarole.

Published on October 8, 2014 at 12:01 am