Media Statements

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD), together with 60 privacy or data protection authorities around the world, today issued the “Joint Statement on AI-Generated Imagery and the Protection of Privacy” (Joint Statement). The signatories include privacy or data protection authorities from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom. While expressing their concern about artificial intelligence (AI) systems that generate realistic images and videos depicting identifiable individuals without their knowledge and consent and other harmful content featuring real individuals, the co-signatories remind all organisations to develop and use AI content generation systems lawfully and to adopt a series of measures to protect the fundamental rights of data subjects, in particular children and vulnerable groups.
 
The Joint Statement was initiated and coordinated through the Global Privacy Assembly’s International Enforcement Cooperation Working Group. The Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, Ms Ada CHUNG Lai-ling, said, “The use of AI systems to generate indecent or malicious photos and videos of individuals, especially children, has recently raised concerns of regulatory authorities in Hong Kong and other areas worldwide. As the co-chair of the Global Privacy Assembly (GPA)’s International Enforcement Cooperation Working Group (IEWG), the PCPD has joined hands with its international counterparts to set out fundamental international principles to guide organisations in developing and using AI content generation systems lawfully and safely. The Joint Statement also reminds all organisations that develop and use AI systems to generate contents to comply with applicable data protection and privacy laws.”
 
The co-signatories remind all organisations to develop and use AI content generation systems lawfully and to adopt a series of measures to protect the fundamental rights of data subjects, in particular children and vulnerable groups, including:

• Implement robust safeguards to prevent the misuse of personal information and generation of non-consensual intimate imagery and other harmful materials, particularly where children are depicted;
• Ensure meaningful transparency about AI system capabilities, safeguards, acceptable uses and the consequences of misuse;
• Provide effective and accessible mechanisms for individuals to request the removal of harmful content involving personal information and respond rapidly to such requests; and
• Address specific risks to children through implementing enhanced safeguards and providing clear, age-appropriate information to children, parents, guardians and educators.

The Joint Statement can be downloaded here.
 
Background
  
The GPA is the premier international forum for privacy or data protection authorities worldwide. The IEWG, a working group under the GPA, promotes cross-jurisdictional cooperation among privacy or data protection authorities and drives cross-jurisdictional enforcement collaboration. The PCPD is the co-chair of the IEWG.