By now many of you in the UK will have either read or heard about the Tulisa Contostavlos sex tape story that has been in the national press this week.

At first the former N-Dubz star and X-Factor judge had denied through her spokesperson that it was her featuring in a home video of a young man and woman engaging in a sexual act. But she has since recorded a video message confirming that it was indeed her in the video.

She went on to apologise to her fans and explain that, at the time the video was recorded, the two of them had been in a loving relationship for over a year and were simply sharing an “intimate moment”.

Of course it’s never nice to have your private life publicly displayed or shared, although there will surely be people who will accuse Tulisa of being naive in thinking that a sex-tape of her wouldn’t be a sought after item in today’s celebrity culture. But then again, what exactly has she done wrong and why should she feel obliged to apologise?

Tulisa was in a loving relationship at the time and she had no intention of the video going public. As she said in her apology video, she also trusted her partner to respect her privacy. It seems a little unfair to haul Tulisa over the coals for someone else making public a video of her engaging in an activity that as we all know, is just one part of a loving relationship.

Putting moral judgement aside, this episode serves as a stark reminder that, whatever levels of privacy you like to maintain, actual privacy will be dictated by the way you share information and with whom.

We are leaving increasingly large digital footprints in the form of Photos, videos, documents, tweets, you name it, as we move through our everyday lives.  With the ease of online sharing we enjoy so much today, seemingly private actions can almost instantly be seen on computers, TVs and mobile phones around the world. A breach of mistaken trust is all it takes to break your intention to share with your own world, not the whole world.