Protect your images from AI scans

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MrFotoFool

MrFotoFool

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Thankfully, this article appeared on my phone newsfeed today: https://petapixel.com/2023/11/30/photographers-alarmed-over-squarespaces-auto-opt-in-of-ai-crawlers/

I use Squarespace for my website and I certainly don't want my images used to increase the ease of creating "photographs" using Artificial Intelligence. I went into my account just now and changed the setting for AI crawlers from the default "on" (green) to "off" (gray).

AI crawler.jpg
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
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Instead of covertly infringing upon copyright rights by slipping in auto opt in features, why not just ask for images to be submitted? Makes me wonder if Adobe is doing this with their “free” cloud storage and website option. Remember nothing is free, there is likely a catch to all these “free” cloud storage options.
 
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Photographer_Bill said:
Instead of covertly infringing upon copyright rights by slipping in auto opt in features, why not just ask for images to be submitted? Makes me wonder if Adobe is doing this with their “free” cloud storage and website option. Remember nothing is free, there is likely a catch to all these “free” cloud storage options.
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i suspect adobe is using their stock image business. if true it might keep them out of the impending ip infringement mess.
 
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Photographer_Bill said:
Instead of covertly infringing upon copyright rights by slipping in auto opt in features, why not just ask for images to be submitted? Makes me wonder if Adobe is doing this with their “free” cloud storage and website option. Remember nothing is free, there is likely a catch to all these “free” cloud storage options.
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I think you will find that they are. IIRC it is in the Ts & Cs that you agree to to be able to use the products.

There is a thread on here about it.
 
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MMoretti said:
Adobe will do ‘content analysis’ on your data, unless you turn it off here:

Adobe Account

Manage your Adobe Account profile, password, security options, product and service subscriptions, privacy settings, and communication preferences.
account.adobe.com account.adobe.com
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Thanks for that! I just turned it off. It may be moot in my case, however, as I never upload and store my images with Adobe........?

Anyone know what Smugmug's policy is? I just checked my SM account settings and found nothing in this regard......
 
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I also have a Facebook business page for my photography (and may set up an Instagram page soon). I suspect they are scanned by AI crawlers. Does anyone know if there is an option to opt out of this on social media?
 
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Photographer_Bill said:
Instead of covertly infringing upon copyright rights by slipping in auto opt in features, why not just ask for images to be submitted? Makes me wonder if Adobe is doing this with their “free” cloud storage and website option. Remember nothing is free, there is likely a catch to all these “free” cloud storage options.
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The exact reason i never have and never will use cloud storage
 
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Adobe do use stock images submitted to them to develop their AI product. They have been clear about this and interestingly made a payment to all of their contributors in respect of this with the promise of more to come.
I do not believe there is an option to opt-out of this in contrast to their ‘free image’ selection in which you are paid annually for any image they place in the free collection but you can choose to exclude some or all of your images.
 
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EricKlees said:
The exact reason i never have and never will use cloud storage
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Of course cloud storage is different from posting your images on Facebook, Instagram, Smugmug, Flickr, etc. Off site backup (cloud storage) of your images is a significant safeguard against loss. I use this service as their entire business policy is privacy and all data is encrypted in transit and at rest. They couldn't scrap your data if they tried. Or ordered to for that matter.

drive.proton.me

I wouldn't be able to sleep easy if I didn't have an offsite backup of my images (and documents etc.).

Another option that auto syncs offsite is Backblaze.com. Also encrypted in transit and at rest. They do not have access to your data even though it rests on their servers.

You might still not be comfortable with it and that's fine of course, personal choice.
 
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Platalea ajaja said:
Of course cloud storage is different from posting your images on Facebook, Instagram, Smugmug, Flickr, etc. Off site backup (cloud storage) of your images is a significant safeguard against loss. I use this service as their entire business policy is privacy and all data is encrypted in transit and at rest. They couldn't scrap your data if they tried. Or ordered to for that matter.

drive.proton.me

I wouldn't be able to sleep easy if I didn't have an offsite backup of my images (and documents etc.).

Another option that auto syncs offsite is Backblaze.com. Also encrypted in transit and at rest. They do not have access to your data even though it rests on their servers.

You might still not be comfortable with it and that's fine of course, personal choice.
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Yep, i have no need or desire for off-site backup. Don't trust it honestly. I've seen issue in the past with friends noting being unable to access. So i have my own solutions
 
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The reality is that Getty Images has been stealing the images of a great many photographers for many years and has killed the stock photography market for many working professionals. The horse left the barn many years ago.
 
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Charlie Lasswell said:
You should have copyrighted it.
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Copyrighting does not prevent the legal ingestion by any AI system. If you posted an image anywhere on the internet or saved it in the cloud, there is a near-certain likelihood that it was ingested and used to train a model and there is nothing you can do about it. There are lawsuits and legislation making their way through the legal system, but no certainty it will provide a semblance of protection. The USPTO doesn't have the tools or the laws to regulate it.
 
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Nimi said:
Copyrighting does not prevent the legal ingestion by any AI system. If you posted an image anywhere on the internet or saved it in the cloud, there is a near-certain likelihood that it was ingested and used to train a model and there is nothing you can do about it. There are lawsuits and legislation making their way through the legal system, but no certainty it will provide a semblance of protection. The USPTO doesn't have the tools or the laws to regulate it.
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I’m pretty sure you meant the US Copyright Office. 😉 In fact, they‘ve posted some relevant info on AI here:

Copyright and Artificial Intelligence | U.S. Copyright Office

Copyright law
www.copyright.gov www.copyright.gov

I think Steven was referring to NF’s beating him to a comment on futility…
 
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1) Whenever you see you favorite youtuber do a promo for Squarespace (or similarly business that do opt-in by default), take the 10s necessary to leave a thumbs-down and a comment pointing out they are working with a scummy sponsor.

2) I wonder if it wouldn't be possible to insert into images certain features that are not visible to the human eye but once the AI training algorithms run over them will introduce all sort of weird and wonderful artifacts to their output...
 
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Platalea ajaja said:
I wouldn't be able to sleep easy if I didn't have an offsite backup of my images (and documents etc.).
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Did you never hear of external hard drives or bank safe deposit boxes? How about an external hard drive and a friend's or relative's house? An off-site external hard drive may not be as convenient as cloud storage, but it's even more secure and totally within your control.
 
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