This email was far more unnerving.<\/p>\n
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An excerpt from the anonymous email, with personal information redacted. | Source: Courtesy Iona Derman<\/p>\n
She sent a complaint to Yahoo, which said it would investigate. When she followed up, the details the company provided were scant. She sent an email to the address, but it bounced back, apparently deactivated after its mission was complete.<\/p>\n
In the 18 months since she received the email, she is no closer to solving the whodunit, though she is convinced it came from a real estate agent, not a homeowner. (Realtors have greater access to personal records and more to lose, she reasoned.) Representatives of both camps have asked her to remove posts and pictures over the years. She said she has always obliged, even without the threat of legal action.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t a big deal. I\u2019m not earning money from this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Recently, she decided to fight back after learning that photographers almost always retain the copyright to their photos, which gives the real estate agents who paid for them no say over what she does with them.<\/p>\n
Her Instagram bio now describes her as \u201cDoxxed but not Deterred,\u201d and despite long being anonymous on her account, she decided to come forward for this story. Staying silent would give whoever is trying to intimidate her exactly what they want. And she\u2019s not the kind of person to reward bad behavior.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m basically a pretty trusting person and believe that professionals will behave like professionals and that people, for the most part, do the right thing,\u201d Derman said. \u201cI\u2019ve come to find out that that is simply not true.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two tough cookies<\/p>\n
Derman describes herself as \u201ca pretty tough cookie from Brooklyn,\u201d despite decades living in the Bay Area. The one time she recalled taking a break from her daily posts is when she was in the hospital due to a heart condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For a born and raised New Yorker, there may be no greater insult than to be considered a chump. Much of Derman\u2019s anger comes from feeling like the agencies legal threats have made her \u201cstupid enough\u201d to do their bidding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Derman considers herself \u201ca pretty tough cookie from Brooklyn\u201d and is angry the agencies lawyers\u2019 letters made her \u201dstupid enough\u201d to take down photos they didn\u2019t own. <\/p>\n
Vanguard agent Ilana Minkoff was also born in New York, though her family moved 20 miles away to South Orange, New Jersey. As someone who\u2019s done deals around the country, Minkoff said agents in San Francisco are among the best behaved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t play dirty, for the most part,\u201d Minkoff said. \u201cWe all have one singular goal: to get the best deal for our clients and to take it over the finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n
SF Daily Photo\u2019s snark can come into conflict with that objective. Derman\u2019s posts have poked fun at Realtor-speak like \u201coasis\u201d for a home accessible only via staircase (opens in new tab)<\/a>. In another case, she referred to a (opens in new tab)<\/a> listing as such a \u201cdiscombobulated mess that it\u2019s hard to say which is worse, the Before or the After.\u201d<\/p>\n Derman has the right to say whatever she wants, Minkoff said, but she went beyond freedom of speech when she used AI to change the color of the facade on a Vanguard listing last year.\u00a0 When Minkoff called her on the digital edits in the comments, Derman claimed that the listing photos (opens in new tab)<\/a> were already enhanced with digital ducks and computer-generated children.<\/p>\n Minkoff said that wasn\u2019t true. Her colleague\u2019s Easter photo shoot was \u201c100% a marketing stunt\u201d but also \u201c100% real.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe paid for a flock of baby ducks to float around in a bathtub,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The squawk over the ducks made Minkoff look back at other SF Daily Photo posts. She found one that used photos from one of her listings a few years back in the Haight.<\/p>\n The spat prompted Derman to post publicly that Minkoff was a listing agent with no listings. Minkoff responded that she has active listing agreements and represents numerous buyers.<\/p>\n \u201cIf somebody publicly is going to make a defamatory statement about me or my business that\u2019s factually wrong, I think it\u2019s fair for me to ask them to stop and correct it,\u201d Minkoff said. <\/p>\n A heated back-and-forth exchange continued over direct message, ending with the agent writing, \u201cYou have gone after the wrong person. Best of luck to you.\u201d<\/p>\n Vanguard then sent the cease-and-desist letter at Minkoff\u2019s behest, and Derman blocked her from the account.\u00a0<\/p>\n Minkoff said after the letter from legal went out, she gave SF Daily Photo no further mind. She hadn\u2019t heard about the anonymous threat, which she called \u201chorrible,\u201d and didn\u2019t know Derman had unblocked her.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI testify under oath with my hand on a Bible in a court of law, it was not me,\u201d Minkoff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the same time, she understood why another agent may have been pushed past their limit by one of Derman\u2019s posts or attitude.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t expect if you\u2019re going to piss people off that they\u2019re just going to sit there and take it,\u201d\u00a0 Minkoff said. \u201cAt what point does someone hit their breaking point?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A photo a day keeps the lawyers in play<\/p>\n Derman admits that she toyed with AI for a time, and did use it on the duck post, but she has given up the practice. She also stopped printing addresses because of owner and agent appeals for privacy.<\/p>\n Derman said she has seen no evidence contradicting her claim that Minkoff lacks listings. She also doesn\u2019t believe the post amounts to the \u201cdefamation\u201d Vanguard alleged in a cease-and-desist letter that threatened hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is someone that is extremely thin-skinned,\u201d she said of Minkoff\u2019s reaction. \u201cI don\u2019t feel like I did anything wrong here.\u201d<\/p>\n In her view, the agencies are in the wrong, claiming to have a say in the usage of photos they don\u2019t own.\u00a0<\/p>\n Derman is right that brokerages without a copyright have no legal basis to demand that photos come down, said Tyler Ochoa, a Santa Clara University School of Law professor who specializes in copyright. The photographer almost always holds the copyright, he said, unless a contract says otherwise.<\/p>\n \u201cShe can tell them to stuff it,\u201d Ochoa said of the agencies\u2019 cease-and-desist letters. \u201cIf they wanted to try to push this, they\u2019d have to file a lawsuit, and they would lose.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Compass Regional Vice President Kevin Patsel said in a statement that the firm did not submit a cease-and-desist letter to Derman, but one of its agents, who are independent contractors, may have. (The letter Denman received is signed by Compass in-house counsel Chung Ho Chan.)<\/p>\n \u201cWe would not request a creator take down their content,\u201c Patsel said.<\/p>\n Vanguard President Frank Nolan said he didn\u2019t know the company\u2019s lawyers sent the letter and had never heard of SF Daily Photo. He called the episode \u201cvery San Francisco\u201d and immediately began following the account.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of nosy neighbors at any given time,\u201d he said. \u201cReal estate\u2019s always been like a sport, but it\u2019s become even more of a sport. Everybody wants to see it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n At the same time, privacy has never been more paramount<\/a>. He could imagine an anxious agent getting an earful and sending Derman a sharp demand for a client who felt embarrassed when their home was made fun of on the account. <\/p>\n Derman is proud of all the research that goes into her pointed take on properties and laughed off the idea that her posts might be causing real pain to Realtors.<\/p>\n \u201cI say negative things. I create stories that are snarky and fun, and people laugh at it,\u201d she said. \u201cWho am I hurting by doing this? Really, are the ducks getting hurt?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Her copyright awakening has only caused her to double down on that stance. She recently reached out to the photographer of Minkoff\u2019s old listing in the Haight, and when that person gave her permission, she triumphantly posted the photos (opens in new tab)<\/a> once again.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said she\u2019s no longer going to be cowed into removing pictures unless the photographer asks her to do so. When a photographer does ask her to remove photos at the behest of an agent, as one did about a month ago (opens in new tab)<\/a>, she does. But she also told her followers what had happened and was public about being \u201cpissed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Derman said the account\u2019s focus has shifted over the years. Lately she has added historic photos from city records, alongside her own pictures and, yes, listing photos she likely didn\u2019t get permission to use. SF Daily Photo will keep evolving, she said, because the only person she has to please is herself.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m gonna keep doing it as long as it\u2019s fun, and that\u2019s it,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792507691_16_-S3840x2880-FPNG.png\"\/)
Derman has doubled down on her right to free speech and said she will only respond to photographers\u2019 requests to take down photos posted without their permission. <\/p>\n