Best practice for protecting your “digital self“
In today’s hyper-connected world, we all leave a trail of digital breadcrumbs wherever we go. Every photo we post, video we share, voice note we send and profile we create adds to our “digital footprint.” This digital presence helps us connect, share and also creates a rich dataset that could potentially be used by malicious actors to create deepfakes of us.
While generative AI is powerful, there are still steps you can take to strengthen your digital defences. At VerifyLabs.AI, we’re passionate about empowering you to control your digital narrative and protect your true self online.
Why does your digital footprint matter to deepfakers?
Your digital footprint falls into two categories—active and passive—which constitute all the data you leave behind online.
- Active: this is information you knowingly share (social media posts, profile pictures, comments, uploaded videos, public emails).
- Passive: this is data collected without your active input (IP address, Browse history, location data from apps).
For deepfake creators, your public active footprint is a goldmine. Generative AI models need data to “learn” how to impersonate someone. The more high-quality photos, videos and audio clips of you that are out there online, the easier it becomes for an AI to mimic your appearance, voice and mannerisms.
What are the risks? (From public posts to personal impersonation)
While a deepfake of you might seem far-fetched, the increasing accessibility and sophistication of deepfake tools mean the risk is now considerable. Malicious uses can include:
- Non-consensual intimate content: one of the most devastating and common misuses, creating fake explicit content that can lead to severe emotional distress, reputational ruin and loss of life.
- Reputational damage: imagine a deepfake of you saying or doing something inappropriate, shared widely online. This could damage your career, relationships, or personal brand.
- Fraud and scams (impersonation): deepfakes used to impersonate you to scam your friends or family for money.
- Harassment and bullying: deepfakes can be a cruel tool for online harassment, creating false narratives to target individuals.
What proactive steps should you take to minimise deepfake risk?
Taking control of your digital footprint isn’t about disappearing online, but about being mindful about protecting yourself. Here are practical tips:
- Audit your social media privacy settings:
- Go private: for platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter), consider making your profiles private. This limits who can see and download your photos and videos.
- Review photo tags: untag yourself from photos you don’t want associated with your public profile, especially those uploaded by others.
- Limit information sharing: be cautious about publicly sharing your exact birthdate, home address, phone number, or detailed daily routines. This data can be used to build a comprehensive profile for impersonation.
- Location services: turn off location services for apps that don’t absolutely need them, and avoid publicly sharing your real-time location.
- Old content clean-up: consider removing old, publicly accessible photos or videos that are no longer relevant or that you’re uncomfortable having easily accessible.
- Only share mindfully:
- Think before you post: before uploading a new photo or video, especially of your face or voice, ask yourself: “Do I really need to share this publicly?” “Could this be used by someone with ill intent?”
- Limit high-quality selfies and videos: understand that high-resolution, front-facing images and videos of your face provide excellent training data for AI models.
- Voice notes and public speaking: be aware that any public audio (podcasts, public speeches, voice notes on social media) could potentially be used for voice cloning.
- Strengthen your account security:
- Strong, unique passwords: use complex, unique passwords for all your online accounts.
- Two-factor authentication (2FA/MFA): enable 2FA/MFA wherever possible. Even if someone obtains your password or creates a deepfake to try and bypass a visual check, 2FA adds another critical layer of security.
- Be wary of phishing: deepfake scams often start with sophisticated phishing attempts. Be hyper-vigilant about suspicious emails or messages.
- Practice digital scepticism:
- Question everything: develop a healthy scepticism towards unexpected content, especially if it seems shocking, out of character, or demands urgent action.
- Verify the source: before believing or sharing, always verify the source of the content. Is it a legitimate, trusted account or publication?
- Be on Red Flag alert: while deepfakes are getting better, subtle inconsistencies can still exist (e.g., unnatural eye movements, distorted backgrounds, odd lighting). Learn what to look for, but don’t rely solely on your eyes.
- Leverage verification tools like VerifyLabs.AI Deepfake Detector:
- Even with the best preventative measures, you may encounter suspicious content featuring someone you know, or even yourself. VerifyLabs.AI is your personal digital truth detector. If you receive a questionable image, video, or audio clip, you can use the app to quickly analyse it and get a clear “human” (green circle), “AI-generated” (red square) or grey bar (test further) results.
- You’ll then be able to decide when to trust and when to be super-wary.
Your digital self is worth protecting
Protecting your digital footprint in the age of deepfakes is an ongoing process. It requires awareness, vigilance and the right tools. By being mindful of what you share, securing your accounts and having a reliable verification tool like VerifyLabs.AI Deepfake Detector at your fingertips, you can significantly reduce your risk. Your digital identity is precious—let’s work together to safeguard it.
It’s evening in a corporate office in a major world capital. The hustle and bustle has thinned as colleagues start to go home. An executive sits at their desk, wanting to tie up due diligence before leaving for the nightly commute.
The exec is examining a new client’s details and is uploading a scan of their passport.
It looks fine. The photo is nice and sharp. The layout is clear and all the markings are exactly where they should be.
Nothing about the passport made the exec want to check any further. And the proofs of address and other forms of ID also looked good.
But nevertheless they’re feeling uneasy.
Something the client said on their Zoom call was bothering them.
The client said the weather was sunny, but if they were in London where they alleged they were, they’d have known that it had been pouring with rain for the last two weeks.
In the meeting the exec explained it away thinking they were being ironic, or had made an attempt at humour. But the exec’s tummy feels inexplicably tight and off somehow and, despite being tired, they wonder what to do.
If this were you, would you:
- Continue onboarding your client ignoring your bodily dis-ease by rationalising away your feelings as a misunderstanding?
- Ask for a robust check on your client’s details, running them through a deepfake detector and asking another human for their opinion?
Our gut-brain connection is a powerful analytics system that often “knows” that further checks are needed before our conscious minds do. When faced with complex decisions where data is incomplete or overwhelming, your gut integrates a vast number of subconscious variables that your logical mind might overlook.
Your gut instinct is not a mystical feeling; it’s a biological and neurological event rooted in four key scientific principles:
- The gut-brain axis: your gut contains more than 100 million neurons, forming a “second brain” known as the Enteric Nervous System. This system is in constant, two-way communication with your primary brain via the vagus nerve. A gut feeling is your brain interpreting the massive flow of data—including hormones and nerve signals—coming directly from your gut.
- High-speed pattern recognition: a gut feeling is the physical result of your brain’s subconscious processing. It rapidly scans your lifetime of stored experiences and memories for patterns. When it detects a match or mismatch with a past situation, it triggers a physical, visceral sensation long before your conscious mind has had time to logically analyse the situation. It’s a biological “red flag” or “green light.”
- A primal survival circuit: this system evolved to ensure human survival by providing immediate risk assessment. The unease or comfort you feel in a situation is this ancient circuit making a snap judgment—”safe” or “threat”—based on subtle environmental cues, helping you react quickly to potential dangers.
- Microbiome and neurotransmitters: the trillions of microbes in your gut directly influence your intuition. They produce and help regulate critical neurotransmitters responsible for mood and cognition, including over 90% of your body’s serotonin. The health of your gut microbiome can therefore directly impact the clarity and accuracy of the signals sent to your brain.
Listening to your gut is listening to a powerful form of protective intelligence: a combination of real-time data from your “second brain” and high-speed analysis from your subconscious mind.
There are many accounts of deepfake attacks where victims override their initial bodily intuition, explaining it away.
Listen to your gut if:
- You feel something is too good to be true
- You feel an initial sense of disbelief or weirdness
- You feel that something just doesn’t add up
- You see contradictory or non-aligned facts
- You spot just one thing that’s off – like a date, a spelling mistake or an usual idiom
- You feel someone’s tone of voice doesn’t match their skills and experience
- You feel someone’s mode of expression doesn’t fit their purported cultural or ethnic background
- You can’t put a finger on what you feel; it just doesn’t feel right somehow.
Always Verify it first
