Privacy, Identity and Trust in C2PA: An Explainer Series (Part 1)

If you’re looking for an accessible overview of how C2PA works technically and how it relates to privacy, identity, and trust, this is it!

Imagine a system that automatically generates detailed data showing where the digital images, videos and documents we encounter came from, who made them, how they have changed, who owns the rights to their use, and even whether AI was used in their creation.

Some say C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) promises to be just that.  C2PA is a technical framework for connecting digital media content such as images and videos to data about the origins of and changes made to that content. But it is not just a "content labeling" system. C2PA is intended to provide signals for gauging trustworthiness of content, kind of like provenance documentation indicating the authenticity of an oil painting or showing how some ancient artifact changed hands over time.

But how does C2PA really work? How does it relate to privacy, identity, and trust? And what could its use mean for our information and data ecosystem? It’s too early to know whether C2PA will be one of those behind-the-scenes systems that shift the tectonic plates of our digital media ecosystem. But it’s the right time to take a step back and assess what we do know about C2PA and what it could mean – not just for the future of digital information but for our connections to it.

This episode of Privacy on the Ground features music by Liam Back and Speedtest. The Privacy on the Ground intro theme features music by Pangal.