When a member profile is deleted for a TOS violation, images uploaded by that member can still be seen via the Recent Update process for a period of time if the album has been commented or if individual images have been commented or tagged. The audience of the Recent Update data depends on the privacy options chosen by the commenting/tagging member but can range from a) no one to b) the member's friends or to c) all logged on hi5 members. The images in the Recent Update are thumbnails but the full image can be retrieved by simple url modification.

In the case where the images involved are illegal (in addition to being TOS violations) hi5 must assume legal responsibility for "publishing" these images as hi5 is aware they exist on its and Akamai's servers and hi5 declines to remove them.