Kenyans Face Privacy Risks as AI Selfie Trend Grows

Kenyans are increasingly uploading selfies to artificial intelligence platforms to generate personalised caricatures, prompting warnings from the country’s Data Commissioner about the privacy risks involved.

The trend involves users submitting clear photographs of themselves, often alongside short descriptions of their profession or interests. The AI system then produces a stylised image reflecting those details. Writers, for example, have received caricatures featuring pens, ink and scattered pages. The speed and creativity of the images have contributed to the practice’s rapid spread online.

Data Commissioner Immaculate Kassait has advised the public to exercise caution. Speaking on NTV’s Fixing the Nation programme, she said that by submitting selfies, individuals are sharing biometric data. “What you have just done is share your biometrics,” she stated, warning that such information may later be used for analytics and profiling without users fully understanding the consequences.

Kassait linked her concerns to the concept of “surveillance capitalism,” a term coined at Harvard University to describe the commercial use of personal data to predict and influence behaviour. She said that when Kenyans upload images, they may be contributing to the development of AI systems that lack sufficient African datasets. This, she argued, could benefit foreign technology firms without compensation to the individuals whose data is used.

OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, states that user content, including images, may be used to improve its models unless users choose to opt out. The company says such data supports improvements in accuracy, safety and overall performance. However, the default settings on its mobile application allow content to be used for model training, meaning users must actively disable the feature if they do not wish their data to be included.

Kassait said that while her office enforces Kenya’s data protection laws, individuals must take responsibility for their online activity. She compared data protection to securing one’s home, noting that legal safeguards exist but personal vigilance remains essential. She urged users to read terms and conditions carefully and make informed decisions before sharing sensitive information.