Published in News

Snapchat claims to own your mug

by on19 September 2024


It is nice someone wants this old thing

Social notworking outfit Snapchat claims that it has the right to use its customer's faces in advertisements unless they say they can't.

Snapchat's terms of service for its "My Selfie" tool reserve the right to use users' AI-generated images in ads. While users can opt out by disabling the "See My Selfie in Ads" feature, it is enabled by default.

According to 404Media, the information can be found in the support page on the Snapchat website titled "What is My Selfie?" explains further: "You'll take selfies with your Snap camera or select images from your camera roll. These images will be used to understand what you look like to enable you, Snap and your friends to generate novel images of you. If you're uploading images from the camera roll, only add images of yourself,"

Snapchat's site says. "After you've successfully onboarded, you may have access to some features powered by My Selfie, like Cameo's stickers and AI Snaps. We constantly add features and functionality so stay tuned for more My Selfie features."

However, after users have done all that, they get adverts featuring their own faces on Snapchat.

One thread of the r/Privacy Reddit community is based around a user who claimed this happened to them.

"The photo that was used in the advertisement is AI. However, it is very clearly me,."It has my face, my hair, and the clothing I wear, and it even has my lamp & part of a painting on my wall in the background. I have no idea how they got photos of me to be able to generate this ad."

Officially, Snapchat is not confirming or denying whether this user was served an ad featuring their face. However, it claimed that if it happened, it was not because they used My Selfie images.

Snapchat also said that it investigated the claim in the Reddit thread that the advertiser, yourdreamdegree.com, has a history of advertising on Snapchat and that Snapchat believes the ad in question does not violate any of its policies.

Snapchat confirmed the news but emphasised that advertisers cannot access Snapchat users' generative AI data.

It said that while the terms do reserve the right to offer advertising based on My Selfies in the future, in which Snapchatters can see themselves in a generated image delivered to them, Snapchatters have full control over this and can turn this on and off in My Selfie Settings at any time.

Last modified on 19 September 2024
Rate this item
(2 votes)