The protection of data and privacy of users has been a topic of special interest in recent years. Therefore, knowing that the “Have I Been Trained” website is making unauthorized photographs of people who have not been asked for their prior consent available to anyone who performs a simple search, is surprising. A situation that can be reported.
What is the “Have I Been Trained” website?
This website has 5.8 billion images intended to be used to train popular AI art models. It is a photo bank that anyone can access and perform a simple search for people’s faces, for example. What was not known is that among all these images there are some that may not be authorized because the person in question has not given their consent.
The Data Protection Law is the one in charge of clarifying the behavior that should exist around the use of this type of publication. In no case may photographs be used without the person’s written authorization. The penalty can be up to around 10,000 euros. for this fraudulent use, as well as demanding the immediate withdrawal of said image.
Who has sounded the alarm about this fact has been Lapine, an artist working in the artificial intelligence sector who discovered that the “Have I Been Trained” website was shamelessly using her unauthorized photos. The most curious thing is that these images had been taken by a doctor in 2013, since she was diagnosed with dyskeratosis congenita and underwent various treatments.
Dyskeratosis congenita causes skin color changes, white patches in the mouth, and nails that are abnormally shaped because they barely grow. Lapine had given his doctor consent to take such photographs. and, thus, better study their condition and subsequent surgeries. But, in no case, that authorization was extrapolated to third parties and now, it seems, that their images are on that website.
The death of his doctor in 2018 makes Lapine suspect that someone had in his hands those unauthorized photographs for publication in the media and on the web, and that he made the decision to send them to “Have I Been Trained”. Although his identification does not appear in any of them, Lapine is uncomfortable with this invasion of his privacy. and even more so when the Data Protection Law is so severe with this type of case.
Potential Consequences of Using Unauthorized Photography
The obligatory step in a case like the one Lapine is experiencing is to file a complaint. The Data Protection Law covers this type of circumstance and, sometimes, as we mentioned, a fairly large sanction can be filed. However, the main thing is the removal of unauthorized photos for which “Have I Been Trained” has already spoken. It will remove some of those photos.
The Internet offers photo banks to provide models of artificial intelligence images that must have prior express consent. It has not been the case for Lapine who has realized that unauthorized photos of her have been on “Have I Seen Trained” for four years. An invasion of your privacy and intimacy, because those images expose their own illness. She sure isn’t the only one.
