My intercourse diary: ‘Hackers leaked intimate photographs after stealing my laptop computer’

When hackers threatened to leak a filmmaker’s nude photographs saved on her stolen laptop computer, she turned the cameras on herself to doc her ordeal.

Spanish director Patricia Franqueza was sitting in a restaurant in Madrid when thieves stole her laptop computer in 2019.

Three months later, the hackers contacted her demanding cash, threatening to leak intimate photographs she had saved on the system if she didn’t pay up.

Francisa did not know for certain – and nonetheless would not know – whether or not the individual attempting to blackmail her was the identical one who truly stole the laptop computer.

However in a scenario the place victims have little management, Franquesa was capable of doc the whole episode on movie from her perspective because it occurred.

The result’s My Sextortion Diary, which has simply been screened on the Sheffield Documentary Movie Pageant.

“Producing a documentary was my means of gaining some management and energy,” Francisa advised the BBC. “It was my means of defending myself, not hurting myself and giving me some separation, it was like constructing a bubble.”

The space she took in making the movie was worthwhile, and in addition helped her come to phrases with what was occurring. “It is nonetheless me, after all, however I wanted to separate myself. I used to be speaking about Patty, however there’s Patty the character and Patty the director.”

She joked that it was fairly acceptable for such an ordeal to occur to “somebody who does documentaries, so it is the proper alternative to rework… [the cameras] round”.

Taking, storing, and sending nude photographs is totally regular for a complete era that has grown up with the Web.

Nevertheless it opens up a complete world of dangers that these born in earlier many years by no means confronted.

“My father took photos of my mom carrying swimsuits that had been perhaps just a little see-through,” Francisa smiles as she remembers an period that appears tame by comparability. “However for the reason that digital world got here to us, it is our new means of getting intimacy.”

In her case, the hackers confirmed how severe they had been by leaking some photographs to her buddies, household and colleagues, who discovered her by way of her social media connections.

However Francisa makes some progress because the movie progresses. The police write to her to say they arrested her after inspecting CCTV footage from the café – which she ultimately obtained herself and included within the movie.

The movie exhibits how the laptop computer was seized by three males, whose faces had been blurred in the course of the movie, working collectively from totally different places contained in the café.

However whatever the evolving police investigation, the hackers proceed their makes an attempt to blackmail her.

After exhausting her choices and refusing to pay, Franquesa ultimately determined to add the photographs to her social media — a horrible final resort, however one which took away the hackers’ energy.

“It was onerous, I used to be crying,” she remembers. “It felt just like the final minute of the marathon. I did not need to submit photos, I hoped and ready for this individual to cease, and as you’ll be able to see he would not cease, so I had nothing else to do.”

Nevertheless, convincing the hacker to cease was not her solely motivation. “It was for me to say, ‘Contacts, this hacker has these photographs, and he is utilizing my contacts, assist me.’

This shifted the stability of energy considerably, and meant that Franquesa may recruit her buddies and followers to assist piece collectively the hacker’s picture and behavior.

“Which modifications the method,” she says. “I wished my acquaintances to inform me after they bought the photographs, as a result of I’d have extra proof to take to the police and preserve the investigation open.

“It was a disgrace break,” she displays. “The opposite individual’s try to embarrass me failed as a result of I had my very own photographs. Then it magically stopped.”

The truth that the hacker stopped speaking shortly after Franquesa uploaded the photographs means that it was somebody who was already following her when she turned her accounts personal after the primary blackmail try — however she nonetheless would not know who.

The documentary has completed properly on the festivals it has beforehand proven. Described by Mark Adams from Business Doc Europe As a “highly effective and provocative, insightful true story that displays the depressing actuality going through these individuals who must take care of the atrocious conduct of unscrupulous hackers.”

The person who stole the laptop computer was ultimately bodily imprisoned. However for Franqueza, the first concern was not in regards to the laptop computer itself, however somewhat the best way her information was later used towards her.

“He was sentenced to 10 months in jail, only for stealing the pc,” she explains. “Within the choose’s ruling, I used to be capable of say that it was linked to a doable blackmail operation.”

Franqueza’s focus has since shifted to elevating consciousness of what occurred, and asking questions on how these legal networks function.

“I advised the police, the man [who stole the laptop] He is aware of what he did with the pc. The police advised me the pc would not be recovered, so I stated, “I do know that, however what do they do with stolen {hardware}?”

“As a result of there are plenty of mafia now. In Spain, you steal units and promote them, after which they go to individuals who hack the units and take the info, discover issues, and begin extorting. I need to perceive what this method is.”

“It isn’t nearly justice in my case, as a result of it is over for me,” she factors out, “however the police have to grasp what occurs in any such case. What’s the system of this mafia? If I had been a policeman, I’d be very curious.”

The largest problem was learn how to make one thing cinematic from so little materials. Francisa can solely doc her facet of the story, and most developments happen by way of written communications – emails from hackers, police letters or letters between Francisa and her buddies.

The director “did not see that as a limitation” as a result of the movie was supposed to be a “digital diary”.

The hackers are represented by a digitally altered feminine voice, whereas textual content conversations are represented by digital speech bubbles that mimic WhatsApp conversations.

“My Sextortion Diary is at all times partaking and finds a solution to preserve the narrative shifting regardless of its unconventional strategy.”

The documentary ends earlier than the sentencing, as a result of Francisa laughs, “We would have liked to shut the film in time for South by Southwest!” – The pageant the place the movie was proven in March. She says some new texts will now be added on the finish after the conviction.

In the end, Francisa hopes the movie will assist result in change, as a result of she feels legal guidelines usually are not altering quick sufficient to maintain up with legal conduct.

“I need to scream that this isn’t working, the legal guidelines round our information. Our system that wants our safety is shifting too slowly. There’s a downside right here in regards to the varieties of protections we’ve.

“The one satisfaction on this case is that we’re speaking about it now. The ending of the movie is bittersweet. Patty’s success is making the movie, however the hacker and the justice are incomplete.”

“I hope my case can be utilized to grasp what,” she concludes [criminals] “I do that, I put myself first to allow them to research my case and assist others.”