Advertisers are using bloggers’ faces without their consent
What can cosmetic bloggers and the Cambridge Analytica saga tell us about protection from misleading conduct? Associate Professor Jeannie Paterson, Professor Elise Bant and Gavin Rees investigate.
What would you do if you saw your own face being used to advertise a product without your consent?
No doubt you’d get in touch with those in the wrong and ask them to take down the offending advertisements. But suppose that while they agree that they shouldn’t be using your image, and agree not to produce any further, offending advertisements, they refuse to remove the existing material or take any other action.
This is the reported scenario Jessica Buntrock, a skincare blogger, recently found herself in when she discovered unauthorised and photoshopped images of herself being used to market ‘Real Health’ in Sydney’s Bankstown.
The theft of digital assets issue is far more complicated when the global nature of the internet is taken into account. Even within the confines of one nation state it is complicated, but the situation becomes much worse when trying to get remedy across national boundaries. Audio, images, likenesses, methodologies etc are all appropriable by actors outside the local jurisdiction with impunity. Remedy is then practically impossible for the small player. It is naive to think that anything (assets, information) you put on the internet will not be stolen and misused either by a company or by scammers. I have had whole songs of mine put up on UK web sites as the work of others. I accepted this was quite possible when I put them up on sites such as Soundcloud so I did not get my knickers in a knot when it actually happened. The legal situation around songs is much more clear cut, but even within one jurisdiction, without a lot of money the small player has no hope of remedy. Legal remedy is only for the rich!