Your digital identity is one of your most valuable assets. In an era of rapid AI advancement, protecting your likeness is not just about preventing fraud, it’s about owning and controlling your future. Recent developments at YouTube have raised serious questions about who truly controls your biometric data, and the answers are cause for concern.YouTube’s new likeness detection tool, designed to flag unauthorized uses of a creator’s face, sounds like a step forward. However, the policy language creators must agree to tells a different story On closer look, Google’s privacy policy leaves the door wide open for Google to use your biometric data (ie. finger prints, voice and even facial expressions) to train its own AI models. When challenged over on X, YouTube called these concerns a “false alarm.”
Let it be clear: This isn’t about selling services, it’s about protecting the rights of content creators along with casual YouTube users. It’s about ensuring you have absolute control over your most personal asset: your likeness.
The Problem with Google’s Fine Print
When creators sign up for YouTube’s likeness tool, they must upload an ID and a biometric scan of their face. They also consent to Google’s broad privacy policy. This is where the problem begins. The language in Google’s terms explicitly allows the company to use your data to train its AI models.
YouTube’s defense is that it hasn’t used this data for AI training, yet. But what happens when the value of that training data (which could include your likeness) outweighs their current stance? A policy that permits future use is a policy that fails to protect you today. Without a firm commitment to change the language and permanently wall off this data, creators’ rights are at risk.
A Pattern of Moving Fast with Limited Guardrails
Trust is earned through consistent action, and Google’s recent track record in the AI space is cause for concern. Most recently Google’s Nano Banana image generator, which can produce photorealistic images of celebrities and protected IP with few restrictions, shows a pattern of prioritizing speed over safety.
YouTube may have good intentions, but it’s also a part of Google, a company locked in an aggressive race for AI dominance. Our CEO and cofounder, Dan Neely put it plainly, “As Google races to compete in AI and training data becomes strategic gold, creators need to think carefully about whether they want their face controlled by a platform rather than owned by themselves,” He adds that in this race, high-quality training data is the ultimate prize. Your likeness, your expressions, and your identity are incredibly valuable data sets. Handing over control of your biometric information to a platform with competing interests is a significant risk. Once you give that control away, you may never get it back.
Ownership vs. Access: Why It Matters
The ability to create convincing deepfakes is becoming easier and more accessible. For creators, your trust and credibility are your livelihood. The threat of unauthorized or malicious deepfakes is a direct attack on your reputation and career. But the solution isn’t a tool that forces you to trade ownership for protection.
True protection comes with clear, indisputable control over your digital identity. This means:
- Transparent Policies: You shouldn’t need a law degree to understand how your data will be used.
- Complete Control: You decide how, when, and where your likeness is used in AI systems.
- Fair Compensation: You should be compensated when your likeness is used to generate value.
- Independent Enforcement: Your rights should be enforced by technology that is independent of the platforms distributing content.
Relying on the very platform that profits from content distribution to also be the sole guardian of your likeness creates a clear conflict of interest.
Vermillio’s Commitment: Putting Creators First
At Vermillio, we are committed to building a future where creators have unwavering control over their digital identities. Our mission is to provide the tools and technology needed to secure your likeness, independent of any single platform. We believe in technology that serves creators, not the other way around.
That is why we push for stronger protections and offer advanced tools like TraceID for free. We are building the infrastructure for an ethical and creator-centric AI ecosystem. Your likeness is yours alone, and we provide innovative solutions to ensure it stays that way. You deserve security, transparency, and genuine control.
As AI continues to evolve, the conversation around digital likeness will only become more critical. We will continue to advocate for policies that empower creators and IP owners and demand accountability from major platforms.
Protecting your likeness is not a false alarm, it is one of the most important challenges of the AI era, and we are here to ensure you are protected.