{"id":71929,"date":"2024-03-05T00:20:42","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T05:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=71929"},"modified":"2024-03-05T00:20:42","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T05:20:42","slug":"your-face-for-sale-anyone-can-legally-gather-and-market-your-facial-data-without-explicit-consent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/your-face-for-sale-anyone-can-legally-gather-and-market-your-facial-data-without-explicit-consent\/","title":{"rendered":"Your face for sale: anyone can legally gather and market your facial data without explicit consent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The morning started with a message from a friend: \u201cI used your photos to train my local version of Midjourney. I hope you don\u2019t mind\u201d, followed up with generated pictures of me wearing a flirty steampunk costume.<\/p>\n

I did in fact mind. I felt violated. Wouldn\u2019t you? I bet Taylor Swift did when\u00a0deepfakes of her hit the internet<\/a>. But is the legal status of my face different from the face of a celebrity?<\/p>\n

Your facial information is a unique form of personal sensitive information. It can identify you. Intense profiling and mass government surveillance\u00a0receives much attention<\/a>. But businesses and individuals are also using tools that\u00a0collect<\/a>,\u00a0store<\/a>\u00a0and modify facial information, and we\u2019re facing an unexpected wave of\u00a0photos<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0videos<\/a>\u00a0generated with artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
\nThe development of legal regulation for these uses is lagging. At what levels and in what ways should our facial information be protected?<\/p>\n

Is implied consent enough?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The Australian\u00a0Privacy Act<\/a>\u00a0considers biometric information (which would include your face) to be a part of our personal sensitive information. However, the act doesn\u2019t\u00a0define<\/em>\u00a0biometric information.<\/p>\n

Despite its drawbacks, the act is currently the main legislation in Australia aimed at facial information protection. It states biometric information cannot be collected without a person\u2019s consent.<\/p>\n

But the law doesn\u2019t specify whether it should be\u00a0express or implied consent<\/a>. Express consent is given explicitly, either orally or in writing. Implied consent means consent may reasonably be inferred from the individual\u2019s actions in a given context. For example, if you walk into a store that has a sign \u201cfacial recognition camera on the premises\u201d, your consent is implied.<\/p>\n

But using implied consent opens our facial data up to potential exploitation.\u00a0Bunnings, Kmart<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Woolworths<\/a>\u00a0have all used easy-to-miss signage that facial recognition or camera technology is used in their stores.<\/p>\n

Valuable and unprotected<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Our facial information has become so valuable,\u00a0data companies such as Clearview AI and PimEye<\/a>\u00a0are mercilessly hunting it down on the internet\u00a0without our consent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These companies put together databases for sale, used not only by the police in various countries,\u00a0including Australia<\/a>, but also by\u00a0private companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even if you deleted all your facial data from the internet, you could easily be captured in public and appear in some database anyway. Being in someone\u2019s TikTok video\u00a0without your consent<\/a>\u00a0is a prime example \u2013 in Australia this is legal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

What are the rules when filming someone in public? https:\/\/t.co\/3t0yBew1eh<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 ABC News (@abcnews) July 15, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n