A holiday photo you find as a stranger's profile picture. A professional portrait used in an ad for a product you have never seen. A family photo republished on a site you do not know. Unauthorised use of one's own images is more common than people think, and it does not only affect celebrities. Photos of ordinary people are in fact highly sought after by those who create fake profiles, precisely because nobody recognises them.
Why photos get stolen
The most frequent reasons are:
- fake profiles for romance scams: photos of attractive, "ordinary" people help build believable identities;
- spam or propaganda accounts: real faces are needed to look like real people;
- misleading advertising: invented testimonials from satisfied customers, with faces taken from social media;
- low-cost content sites: images used to illustrate articles without asking permission;
- targeted harassment: photos of a person reused to mock or discredit them.
How to find out where your photos are
The main tool is reverse image search. Take the photos you use most often online, such as your social media, CV or professional website pictures, and upload them to one or more search engines that offer this feature. Repeat the check periodically.
A few practical tips:
- use more than one search engine, because their archives differ;
- also try cropped versions of the photo, for example just the face;
- if the photo has been mirrored or retouched, results may be less precise: keep trying variants;
- check the "similar" results too, not just the identical ones.
Your rights over your image
In Italy, a person's image is specifically protected. Article 10 of the Civil Code allows you to ask for the misuse of your image to stop when it is displayed or published outside the cases permitted by law or to the detriment of your dignity or reputation. Italian copyright law also establishes, as a general rule, that a person's portrait cannot be displayed or sold without their consent, subject to exceptions such as fame or news purposes.
On top of this, when you took the photo yourself, there is copyright in the photograph itself: the photo is your work and no one can reproduce it without permission.
In practice you have two arguments that can often be combined: the photo depicts you, and the photo is yours.
How to request removal
On social networks
Use the report for privacy violations or unauthorised use of your image. If the profile is pretending to be you, choose impersonation. If you took the photo yourself, many platforms also offer a copyright infringement form, which is usually handled through fast-track procedures.
On a website
First look for a direct contact: an email address or a form. Write a short request:
"The page indicated contains a photograph of me, taken by me, used without my consent. Please remove it within a few days. I attach the original photo."
If the site does not respond, you can turn to the hosting provider with a copyright infringement notice, attaching the original and stating the exact page address.
In search engines
If the photo keeps appearing in image results even after it has been removed from the page, you can ask the search engine to update or remove the outdated result.
Keep proof of the original
To show that the photo is yours, keep the original file, ideally the one straight from the camera or phone, which usually has a higher resolution and a creation date. Also keep track of where and when you first published it. A full-resolution original set against a smaller, compressed copy is a very clear argument.
Reducing the risk in future
- Post personal photos on private profiles or ones visible only to your contacts.
- For professional photos, consider using only a few, always the same ones, so they are easier to monitor.
- Avoid publishing high-resolution photos unless necessary.
- Repeat the reverse search of your main photos every few months.
In short
- Photos of ordinary people are stolen mainly to create fake profiles and misleading ads.
- Reverse image search, repeated over time, is the main way to discover misuse.
- You have rights both over your image and, if you took it, over the photograph as a work.
- Ask the platform, site or hosting provider for removal, always attaching the original.
- Keep the original files and limit the spread of high-resolution personal photos.