The episode cost Mark more than a decade of contacts, emails and photos, and made him the target of a police investigation
Mark, who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of potential reputational harm, in San Francisco, Calif. on Aug. 6, 2022. A police investigator was unable to get in touch with Mark because his Google Fi phone number no longer worked. (Aaron Wojack/The New York Times)
Mark noticed something amiss with his toddler. His son’s penis looked swollen and was hurting him. Mark, a stay-at-home dad in San Francisco, grabbed his Android smartphone and took photos to document the problem so he could track its progression.
It was a Friday night in February 2021. His wife called their health care provider to schedule an emergency consultation for the next morning, by video because it was a Saturday and there was a pandemic going on. A nurse said to send photos so the doctor could review them in advance.
Mark’s wife grabbed her husband’s phone and texted a few close-ups of their son’s groin area to her iPhone so she could upload them to the health care provider’s messaging system.
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