US lawmakers attack categories of deepfake but miss everyday fraud

A pair of U.S. House of Representative members have introduced a bill intended to restrict unauthorized fraudulent digital replicas of people.

The bulk of the motivation behind the legislation, based on the wording of the bill, is the protection of actors, people of notoriety and girls and women defamed through fraudulent porn made with their face template.

Curiously, the very real threat of using deepfakes to defraud just about everyone else in the nation is not mentioned. Those risks are growing and could result in uncountable financial damages as organizations rely on voice and face biometrics for ID verification.

The representatives, María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Madeleine Dean (D-Penn.), do not mention the global singer/songwriter Taylor Swift in their press release, it cannot have escaped them that she’s been victimized, too.

The proposed law would create steps for protecting digital likenesses and how they can be used.

It boils down to getting consent and then following the contract’s stipulations.

Fines would start at $5,000 per violation plus all profits from the illegal biometric video fraud. And anyone making a “personalized cloning service” would face fines of $50,000 payable directly to victims, including the estates of deceased individuals.

This is not a unique approach to address deepfakes.

The UK was writing bills to stop revenge porn a year ago. Similar efforts in China go back at least to 2019. And new bills began circulating in India last month.

Article Topics

deepfakes  |  face biometrics  |  fraud prevention  |  legislation  |  United States  |  voice biometrics