ServSafe, who does industry standard food safety certifications, condones defrosting frozen foods this way, submerged in cool running water. It's perfectly safe, although the method shown in the original picture will require cleaning the whole sink as raw. As stated, usually this is done with the food wrapped in plastic and placed in a smaller container.

• this is safe to do. Meat is cooked at temperatures that kill all potential bacteria and parasites, even for steaks cooked medium rare.
• this is generally done with the meat still in the packaging, unless there's a dedicated place to thaw meat. The thawing container is washed before and after each use.
• it's always done with cold, running water to prevent the meat from thawing unevenly or unsafely.
• I was working in my college cafeteria.