Snapchat reserves the right to put photos of its users’ faces in ads as part of the terms of service of its “My Selfie” tool, which lets people and their friends create artificial intelligence-generated images that are trained on their selfies.
“My Selfie is used to power Generative AI, Cameos and other experiences on Snapchat that feature you, including ads,” reads a pop up in the Snapchat app.
“My Selfie uses your images and information to do this.”
The pop up, which was reported by 404 Media, gives users the option to “delete My Selfies and change advertising or permissions preferences for” friends.
A support page on Snapchat’s website says that the “My Selfie” feature entails users taking selfies with the “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,” according to the app.
In order to disable the option, users must manually turn off the feature, which is activated by default when starting up the app.
A Snapchat user took to Reddit and claimed that they spotted their own image uploaded to Snapchat and used in an ad for a site called yourdreamdegree.com.
“The photo that was used in the advertisement is clearly AI, however, it is very clearly me,” the Reddit user said.
“It has my face, my hair, the clothing I wear, and 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.”
Another Reddit user reported being “super surprised to see my face being featured in what looked to be an ad” for “Cameos Selfie.”
A Snapchat spokesperson told 404 Media that the company does “reserve the right, in the future, to offer advertising based on My Selfies in which a Snapchatter can see themselves in a generated image delivered to them.”
“As explained in the onboarding modal, Snapchatters have full control over this, and can turn this on and off in My Selfie Settings at any time.”
The company said that advertisers “do not have access to Snapchatters’ Gen[erative] AI data in any capacity, including My Selfies.”
Snapchat also said that its users’ private data is protected from advertisers.
“Snap currently does not use My Selfies in advertising,” the company rep told 404 Media. But the company would not say how it could serve ads in the future using a user’s face without giving that data to advertisers.
The Post has sought comment from Snapchat.