The ethics of this is pretty clear, its wrong, they were never meant to be online. In reality it happens and as piesocial says once they are out there they really do become public domain. Anyone who tells you it is possible to track down and "recover" your photos is outright lying. You can never know just how many people saved a copy and where they are.
Oh and sorry to the OP for sort of hijacking your thread topic (very good by the way) but it is a relevant sub topic.
Don't worry about hijacking, it is relevant although it wasn't really an ethics question but it all adds to the discussion. I wasn't really expecting anyone to admit to posting photos without permission but lets face it it does happen whatever the ethics and some exposers may get a bigger thrill by steeling the photos and posting without permission, I guess it is some sort of power trip for them but I'll leave the ethics to one side on that matter.
I can only speak from a personal view point, I did have cloud account hacked and some of my photos were posted by someone pretending to be me, to this day I still don't know who did it. If you had asked me how I'd feel about it if such a thing happen before it did happen I would say I'd be mad and not to happy but when I found out it had happened I felt completely different about it, but.........
Humiliating confession time.
Wrong or right and ethics firmly to one side once I found out I found the whole experience to be a massive turn on. The thought that someone had spent the time and effort to hack my account and was getting off by humiliating and embarrassing me like this was exciting.
Up until then I had only had one naked photo posted as the result of a wager but suddenly there I was exposed and when I say exposed I mean it. There were several photos of me naked in a public place, the result of a dare, and they clearly showed my face. The photos were not even small ones, when I clicked on a photo it expanded to fill the screen of my laptop and I was clearly recognisable. It was one of those OMG! Moments, I was shocked but also exceedingly turned.
I'll admit not everyone will feel the same and consent is an import issue but I think the hacker/exposer must have known me probably from on-line somewhere and knew I would appreciate treatment. I think they knew me better than I knew myself.
I have never found out who did it, which is a thrill in its self as when I think about it I must have had some connection with that person. It could be anyone a friend, an ex, a work college the person who serves me in the local shop. I looked at everyone for months after that wondering if they were the one. It is a shame I never knew as it could have led to further fun and games but maybe it was their plan to play it like this to torment me more.
The photos did spread a bit and I will admit that sometime afterwards during a very strong vanilla moment I did attempt to get them removed but as it has been said
. Anyone who tells you it is possible to track down and "recover" your photos is outright lying. You can never know just how many people saved a copy and where they are.
I succeeded in getting other posters to remove some photos, some flatly refused and took enjoyment by teasing me or spreading them further. I never did get them all removed and now there are more about with added security to see they remain so.
Due to loosing a wager with a quick witted lady and her husband I can never seek to get any of my past or future photos removed. If I make any attempt to do so I will be fined £1000 payable to a charity. You may wonder how they enforce this, they have copies of all the photos and they monitor the postings but the killer is they have the email address of my mother-in-law and some other people that know me closely.