A Risk of Deepfake: Sharing a Personal Photograph or Video Online

Posted on July 28, 2023  •  2 minutes  • 403 words  • Other languages:  Türkçe

The Report

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) published an announcement on June 5, 2023, about “Malicious Actors Manipulating Photos and Videos to Create Explicit Content and Sextortion Schemes.”

Sextortion is a crime that coerces people to make payments or sexual exploitation demands by threatening to share real or fake sexual material with the public.

The share of personal and biometric data of people under the age of consent is a big problem for their future. Because malicious actors could use people’s pictures to create fake material, removing those materials from the internet may not even be possible.

The potential violations of the rights of people who have faced the situation are not limited to harassment of peers, bullying or financial gain. Social media platforms generally have an intellectual property policy for content shared on them to have almost all rights to use that photo or video for the company’s financial gains and sell them to third parties. For instance, that’s an example of selling personal data by Instagram for a financial transaction.

Deutsche Telekom shared a shocking but potential scenario: “Nachricht von Ella | Without Consent”

Recommendations from FBI’s Report

• Monitoring and consulting children for their internet usage. (I’d like to add that implementing a customizable DNS service would be a good option, like NextDNS private DNS provider.
• Discretion while sharing personal content online (Especially those that include biometric data. )
• Run searches for private information, e.g. full name, address, phone number, and so on, if shared somewhere.
• Checking and using privacy settings on any platform to limit exposed information.
• Considering reverse image searching (like TinEye reverse image search ) to identify the first location of the circulated image online.
• Exercising caution while communicating with strangers online, accepting friend/connection requests, and having a video call. Because those video calls can be recorded and circulated without your consent.
• Using discretion when communicating with known people when they act strangely. Because their accounts may have been hacked and manipulated by malicious actors to gain trust and transact financial actions.
• Securing online accounts with unique and complex passwords with Multi-Factor Authentication. (Other potential proactive measures )
• Researching the platform’s privacy, data sharing, and data retention policies to upload any personal material and information.

Lastly, I urge anyone who shares personal biometric data online. That is especially crucial for parents because children may need to know the potential risks of publicising their personal information.