AI photo trends raise concerns over personal data privacy

The rise of AI-driven social media trends, such as generating 1980s-style nostalgic portraits, has raised significant concerns regarding personal data privacy. When users upload photos to AI services like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude, they transmit sensitive information to external systems for processing.

Data collected can include direct inputs like images and documents, as well as derived information that allows AI to infer user interests, habits, and lifestyles. Technical metadata, such as IP addresses, device types, and GPS location data embedded in images, can also be harvested, potentially revealing home addresses or daily routines.

Specific risks include the exposure of biometric data—such as facial features and skin tones—which could be used for identity verification or deepfake creation. To mitigate these risks, experts recommend reducing image resolution before uploading, using tools to strip metadata, avoiding the upload of photos featuring minors, and reviewing platform settings to disable data sharing for model training.