THE GUARANTOR FOR THE PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA LAUNCHES AN INVESTIGATION.
PRESS RELEASE OF 23 OCTOBER 2020
The "deep fakes" consist of videos and images made through applications that allow you to change the face, people's voices and bodies.
Alerted by press reports that recently brought the story of girls to the attention of the public, without their knowledge, have seen their images published on Telegram manipulated through a software called "DeepNude", available on the social channel and able to reconstruct the appearance that the human body would have under clothing, the Guarantor for the protection of personal data believed it had to start an investigation.
This need was felt for the serious harm to dignity and privacy that the use and dissemination of software such as "DeepNude" could cause unsuspecting victims, especially if minors and if the manipulated images were left to uncontrolled circulation, up to forms of real viralization.
If you consider, indeed, that the use of the program with the attention of the Guarantor is easy to use and, therefore, makes potential victims anyone with a photo uploaded to the web.
In light of the concreteness of the risks, the Guarantor will request information from Telegram, in order to verify compliance with the data protection regulations of users of computer software, to ascertain the possible conservation of the manipulated images, as well as the purposes of the aforementioned conservation.
Furthermore, the Guarantor is considering the adoption of further initiatives that will allow to combat the illicit use of software similar to "DeepNude" and contain the distorting effects of the wider phenomenon of deep fake.
(Written article of the’Lawyer. Stefania Migno)