As privacy experts and leaders in the AI synthetic media space, we are well aware of the vast opportunities this sector presents. Synthetic media leverages creativity through the use of generative AI and can also streamline processes to generate significant time and resource savings.
However, as with many modern technologies, it also brings with it risks such as bias, misuse by malicious actors, and the potential to spread disinformation.
We strive to use our technology for good, and to see this young and exciting industry evolve in a positive direction. We see it as our responsibility to help ensure that synthetic media is used in an ethical way, and to help lead the industry in achieving this.
As the use of this powerful technology grows exponentially, it creates an urgency to establish clear industry guidelines.
To that end, D-ID has partnered with leading privacy experts and ethicists to establish ethical guidelines and codes-of-conduct for this technology. This is a pledge we are making to bring transparency and fairness to our product and how we and our partners deploy them.
We have issued a pledge for how we intend to operate our business in an ethical way, and also intend it as a call for others in the industry to adopt it.
This pledge begins, but does not end, our commitment. It represents the start of an ongoing dialogue with our customers, the wider industry and consumers, as well as regulators and lawmakers. We will continue to work to maintain and build on these commitments.
We hope more partners will join us in making this a reality, to seize this opportunity to earn and grow consumer trust in what we all do.
October 29, 2021
Co-Founder & CEO
Co-Founder & CTO
Co-Founder & C0O
Privacy Tech Expert & Investor at AWS, BigID, Visa, IBM
Privacy Tech Expert & Investor at AWS, BigID, Visa, IBM
Debra Is a globally-recognized Privacy, former head of privacy at Amazon, Security and Ethical Tech Advisor and Principal and Host of The Shifting Privacy Left Podcast. With 17 years of experience managing privacy and data protection issues, Debra has shifted left to work with companies seeking to unlock the value of their data with privacy by design (PbD) strategies, privacy enabling technologies (PETs), and privacy engineering methodologies.
former Chief Privacy Officer at Microsoft
former Chief Privacy Officer at Microsoft
A recognized expert in information privacy and data protection andMicrosoft’s first Chief Privacy Officer. He has extensive expertise in information privacy and data protection both domestically and internationally. He developed Privacy by 3PT: A Management Model and ACT: A Privacy Education Model.
Creator of Privacy by Design; Executive Director of the Global Privacy & Security by Design Centre
Creator of Privacy by Design; Executive Director of the Global Privacy & Security by Design Centre
Dr. Ann Cavoukian is recognized as one of the world’s leading privacy experts.. Dr. Cavoukian served an unprecedented three terms as the Information & Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Canada. There she created Privacy by Design, a framework that seeks to proactively embed privacy into the design specifications of information technologies, networked infrastructure and business practices, thereby achieving the strongest protection possible. In 2010, International Privacy Regulators unanimously passed a Resolution recognizing Privacy by Design as an international standard.
We will strive to develop and use technology to benefit society, even at the expense of customer and investor priorities.
We will work hard to ensure that our customers are using our technology in ethical, responsible ways and while obtaining the necessary third-party consent if so required. We will endeavor to build “ethical use” clauses into all of our terms and conditions, which will allow us to suspend services and revoke the use license to those who fail to comply.
We will work to collaborate with major platforms, operators and others to create an industry-wide, standardized track and trace system (e.g. a digital watermark system) to allow users and vendors to detect/be alerted to synthetic media in all its forms. Until that exists, we will work to ensure that all uses of our technology are clearly marked or understood as synthetic. Our license agreements will permit the addition of such watermarks in a way that will not interfere with the content.
We strive to ensure that our platform and services will not be used for fake news purposes nor by anyone associated with a pornographic publisher, a terrorist organization or any individual, company or organization under applicable sanctions. We see this as our responsibility and moral obligation, and as such it is our commitment to exhaust all legal measures at our disposal to immediately suspend such use, should we discover such violation.
Provided we are legally allowed and where technically possible, we will conduct random audits of both original and generated materials that use our technology. We will do this to ensure that the material and created output are consistent both with our values as well as emerging standards and policies from governments and regulators.
Where an actor is visible or audible, we do our best to ensure that our contract with them respects their privacy and consent, in line with existing industry standards and expectations. In certain cases, there is a need for talent behind the scenes, as drivers for synthetic output, either from us or our licensees. In such cases, we will do our best to require that the performers consent to their performances being used in this way, are fairly paid, and informed of the distribution of their performances.
Through a content program, we will educate the public about how our technology, and synthetic media in general, works and how to spot its use and as mentioned, we will work to ensure that all uses of our technology are clearly marked סr understood as synthetic.
We will strive to train our platform with data sets that are diverse and do not favor any particular ethnicity, age or community.
We will contractually require our licensees to have the proper rights, including processing rights, to all the source material including images, audio and video involved in any generated content.
We will cooperate with appropriate regulatory and non-governmental bodies for mutual dialogue about ethical development and deployment of our tech. D-ID’s platform is compliant with the White House’s recently released Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, a non-binding document that aims to regulate how companies and government agencies can safeguard people from misuse or abuse at the hands of AI technology.