Pickle, a video and photo sharing service, has unveiled Pickle Channels, allowing users to broadcast media directly from their mobile phones to virtually any website.

Channels are portable media galleries that can be displayed anywhere and updated from computers and mobile phones. A user can simply set up a channel, fill it with videos and photos, and then embed the entire channel of content on social network profiles, blogs, or any other site. Each channel has a unique email address allowing family and friends (and perhaps others) to easily add new items on the fly. With each contribution, the channel automatically updates everywhere it is posted… instantly.

The company cited a number of examples such as sending shots straight to a blog or MySpace page from a phone; uploading a whole set of videos that play in a loop, effectively creating a TV station which can then post anywhere; and in a 21st-century variation of the disposable camera on every table at special events, the ability to play a channel in full screen on a big monitor or projector at a party, bar mitzvah, or wedding and then have guests send their creations to the screen by emailing to the channel from their phones.

Pickle users display their channels on other websites via the Pickle Channel Player. Pickle also provides complete control over the privacy and security of each channel. Users can moderate incoming content as well as select who can view and who can contribute to each channel. Pickle's player, which appears to represent a significant advance over existing embeddable video and slideshows, has additional new features including support for both videos and photos, Full Screen Anywhere­—the ability to play in regular or full-screen mode on any website—and allowing viewers to add their own content to the channel.

In our Security Predictions for 2007 we noted that Photo Abuse such as Internet videos, whether of the latest movie, violent acts such as the hanging of Saddam Hussein, or candid shots taken at the workplace, can have almost instant global exposure. Litigious aggrieved employees and ex-employees may seek damages for embarrassing videos taken via mobile phone cameras at the workplace, arguing that employers have the duty to ensure the business nature of the workplace by publishing and enforcing policies intended to protect their employees.

Sageza believes that organizations have paid too little attention to the potential for misuse of mobile phone cameras in the work place. While there are some high-security organizations such as those within the Defense establishment that have prohibited the carrying of mobile phones into many of their facilities, it would appear that most organizations have not addressed the need for a policy covering the use of these devices at work.

While some analysts consider the impending convergence of physical and information security to mean facility access and the like, we believe the cameraphone will emerge as a significant threat to employee privacy and perhaps a great tool to purloin intellectual property since one picture is indeed worth 1,000 (ore more) words. We are already seeing iPods being employed as a device of choice to remove large amounts of intellectual property from organizations; the Pickle announcement is yet one more step closer to our predicted photo abuse.