Parents love capturing their kids' big moments, from first steps to birthday candles.
But a new study out of the U.K. shows many of those treasured images may be scanned, analyzed and turned into data by cloud storage services, and nearly half of parents don't even realize it.
A survey of 2,019 U.K. parents, conducted by Perspectus Global and commissioned by Swiss privacy tech company Proton, found that 48% of parents were unaware providers like Google Photos, Apple iCloud, Amazon Photos and Dropbox can access and analyze the photos they upload.
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These companies use artificial intelligence to sort images into albums, recognize faces and locations and suggest memories. While convenient, the same technology can also have more dangerous uses, like deepfake videos.
Professor Carsten Maple, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Warwick, warns that, with as few as 20 photos, AI tools can create a convincing digital clone of a person, including deepfake videos. These tools don't need a high-resolution scan or video footage, just a handful of everyday pictures in the cloud.
"Parents are unwittingly opening their children up to possible exploitation by criminals who want to use their data for their own purposes," Maple told the Edinburgh Evening News.
He added that even mundane photos, like a child at school or in the backyard, can reveal names and locations. Fifty-three percent of parents surveyed had no idea this was possible.
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Over half of parents, 56%, have automatic photo uploads enabled, meaning their phones constantly send new images to the cloud without ever having to tap "upload."
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Even without deepfakes, data collection is extensive. Only 43% of parents knew cloud services collect metadata like time, date and location, and just 36% surveyed were aware that these companies analyze the contents of photos too.
Concern is catching up to convenience. Nearly three in four parents (72%) surveyed said photo privacy is important, and 69% acknowledged the risks of digital footprints left by storing family photos online.
Though the study was conducted in the U.K., its findings apply globally. American families use the same technology platforms and face the same questions: Where are kids' photos going? Who is looking at them? And what could they be turned into?
In the age of AI, a family photo isn't just a memory, it's also data which can be scanned, stored, sold and, increasingly, manipulated into deepfakes.
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Perspectus Global did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for comment.
