Recently I heard of a strange website (bostontcrush.com) that encourages people to secretly take a picture of someone they find attractive on the T, and then post it on the website – without the knowledge or consent of the poor soul in the photo. All I can say is… what the …? How can someone start a website like this and not think it’s a little creepy?

Just the “secret photo” part makes me feel dirty! It’s a good thing that this is new, and probably wont last long. Oh wait! This is actually the third edition! Apparently this group has already launched 2 similar websites for the New York subway and London’s tube! This is crazy! Social media has gone crazy! How can someone not consider this a voyeuristic website? Not to mention that it’s encouraging other passengers to be total creeps on the T(which isn’t something that needs encouraging)!

I’ve seen some weird things on the T, but I can safely say that the thought of some other “normal” person on the T, secretly snapping a picture of me on their phone is quite possible the creepiest thing I could ever think of. The fact that that picture could be on the internet in about 5 minutes is just plain weird.

The previous sites developed for New York and London only showed males. Why pick only one gender to display? Personally I think it’s because females would have more of a problem with their pictures being online without their knowledge than males.. Oh wait… I’m a male – and it’s still creepy! As of right now, there are plans to show women (in addition to men) on the Boston site… equal opportunity doesn’t seem to take the weird out of this equation, but who knows. The site seems to be doing well.

The good thing is that if you happen upon the site and find a picture of yourself, you can request that it be taken down. I’m wondering how do people feel about this. Personally, it still seems like a violation, especially if you don’t know about the site, and your picture is on display for the world to see…

-Frankie