content credentials Archives - SmartFrame

How to add Content Credentials to your images

Matt Golowczynski — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 10:10:18 +0000

Content Credentials allow content creators and publishers to add key details to their work, helping to improve transparency. We explain how to use them for your images and view them in those published by others.

Content Credentials are now starting to appear in a broad range of images online. They provide online audiences with information on a piece of content’s origin, along with details on any edits made, including the use of AI tools.

If you’re not already familiar with Content Credentials and want to learn more, read our complete Content Credentials guide first.

If, however, you understand the concept and now want to start putting it into practice, read on.

How to add Content Credentials on your camera

While it’s possible to add Content Credentials to images after they have been captured, embedding them from the start of an image’s life is ideal as it allows for the most complete picture of an image’s history to be developed.

That said, since this technology is still relatively new, only two cameras support Content Credentials out of the box at the time of writing.

These cameras are the Leica M11-P and the Sony A9 III. Both are relatively new and at the pricier end of the scale for models of their kind, so this option isn’t available to the vast majority of photographers today.

Nevertheless, if you have a slightly older camera, you may still be able to take advantage of this feature.

Sony’s announcement of its A9 III camera came alongside the news that owners of the A1 and A7S III would also be able to access this feature through a forthcoming firmware update – and this was released in April.

Fujifilm also recently announced that it has joined both the CAI and the C2PA, which are behind Content Credentials, and has stated that it will be using this standard in GFX and X series cameras via firmware updates.

This approach opens up the possibility that owners of other models may also receive firmware updates with the same option in the future, which could rapidly increase adoption.

The fact that Nikon included Content Credentials in a demonstration version of its popular Z9 model also suggests that the feature will be included in future Nikon cameras.

How to add Content Credentials using software

While adding Content Credentials in the camera has the advantage of embedding information into images at the very start of the creation process, you don’t need a camera that supports this feature to use it. You can start adding Content Credentials in software instead.

How to add Content Credentials in Adobe Photoshop

Content Credentials are currently in beta in Photoshop, so we expect changes over time. Nevertheless, they are still very much usable at this moment.

To get started, open an image in Photoshop and select Window > Content Credentials (Beta). A dialog box with the option to enable Content Credentials will appear on the right-hand side of the screen.

Once this is enabled, you will be able to select which details to apply, such as Producer and Edits & Activity. By default, all options should be selected, including Generative AI transparency.

By clicking on Preview, you will now be able to see what these Content Credentials will look like. These will change as you select and deselect the options above. The Actions will update as you edit the image.

Finally, to save the image with credentials attached, head to File > Export > Export As… before selecting the relevant option from the Content Credentials (Beta) section. You can choose whether to publish the Content Credentials to the cloud or attach them to the file itself.

How to add Content Credentials in Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom users can also add Content Credentials when editing images.

The options available to the user are much the same as those described above for Photoshop users, although the process of enabling them is a little different.

To get started, head to Preferences > Technology Previews, before checking the Content Credentials (Beta) Export Options setting.

Once you have finished editing the image, click on the Share icon in the top-right-hand corner and then Export, whereupon you should see a dialog box for Content Credentials.

Here, you can choose a method of appending the credentials to the image – either to the file, stored in the Content Credentials Cloud, or both – and select the specific credentials to export.

How to view Content Credentials

Not all images have Content Credentials. You can tell whether one does by checking to see whether a Content Credentials pin is found in the corner of the frame.

For this to appear, the website itself will need to support the display of this pin within the image. This is important as not all websites do.

If you’re viewing a SmartFrame, however, this is not necessary, as the SmartFrame itself contains everything it needs to display this, regardless of where the image has been published.

Clicking on this pin brings up a panel with the basic details. These will typically include the original media, the entity that signed the images, the content’s producer, and the app or device used to create the content. It may also include connected social media accounts and edits made to the image (if any).

Exactly what’s displayed depends in part on what the content producer has enabled – either in the camera or when editing, or both – and in part on what cannot be removed, such as the use of the Firefly generative AI tool in Photoshop.

Viewing additional details

The panel described above provides a snapshot of the key information attached to the image. But it’s possible to see even more detailed information if required.

At the bottom of the Content Credentials dialog box within the image, there may be an additional link that takes you to the Content Credentials website, where the image can be verified.

This link may simply be a “Verify on ContentCredentials.org” text link or a button labeled “Inspect”.

In either case, this allows you to develop a better idea of the types of edits made to the image and to see whether multiple images were used in its creation, among other things.

It also provides you with a way to quickly confirm that the image has been signed and verified on the official ContentCredentials.org site. You may wish to do this if something about the image, the CR pin, or the site on which the image has been published seems suspicious.

For most images, key details – such as its origin, the edits made to it, and so on – are easily contained and viewed within the panel described above. But with some images – and particularly composite images – it’s not always practical to view this level of detail within this panel alone.

For this reason, some SmartFrame images with Content Credentials have an additional feature, whereby the user is able to view certain details in a full-window preview mode.

This preview mode, which occupies the full size of the window in which they are viewing the image, allows them to easily view all media associated with an image, along with edits and other details, without them needing to leave the site they are on and view these on the ContentCredentials.org website.

You can see what this looks like by clicking on the CR pin in the image above. If the image supports full-window preview, it will automatically appear in this way upon a click of the pin.

While it’s still possible to visit the ContentCredentials.org site and verify the image as when a SmartFrame image has this full-window preview mode, the user may find the level of detail they require is contained within this preview.

What does the future of Content Credentials look like?

It’s common for new technologies like Content Credentials to appear and then quietly be retired some time later. However, the strong need for it to combat various threats, combined with rapid adoption by key players, means it unlikely that it will face the same fate.

Indeed, just the past few months alone have welcomed several announcements regarding Content Credentials, as well as the C2PA standard that underpins them and the Content Authenticity Initiative, from major platforms.

In February, Google announced that it was to join the C2PA as a steering committee member.

The following month, the BBC – one of the founding members of the C2PA – published its first piece of content that made use of C2PA tools.

This was followed by an announcement from TikTok that it would join the Content Authenticity Initiative and adopt Content Credentials for AI-generated content on its platform. Most recently, LinkedIn added support for images with Content Credentials.

With Meta also currently building tools to identify C2PA metadata in images posted on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, it seems certain that Content Credentials and related technologies will only grow more prominent over the coming years.

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Image manipulation: Why it’s a problem and what we can do about it

Liam Machin — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 10:45:09 +0000

Tools used to manipulate images are more readily available than ever, and that can be an issue in terms of what makes something trustworthy. So what can be done to rebuild this?

Can you guess 2017’s word of the year?

The answer to that burning question is “fake news” – thanks in large part, of course, to the US president at that time.

But the fact that we’re still debating what can be done about disinformation and misinformation years later shows just how significant this issue has become.

When it comes to social media platforms, they rely on people being able to share content freely and easily.

Consequently, such platforms must also deal with the fallout from content created and used for harm.

Although it is worth noting that most of the largest platforms are now making greater efforts to educate users on the subject, a lack of protection and limited visibility over the origin of media means these issues will persist.

If these platforms can rectify this and demonstrate that they take the safety of their users seriously, they can rebuild the trust that has been eroded over the past few years.

With the online world facing the challenge of speed vs accuracy, it’s perhaps unsurprising that the WEF’s 2024 Global Risks Report found “misinformation and disinformation to be the top risk for the world in the next two years.”

At the heart of this epidemic is image manipulation.

Out-of-context images have repeatedly caused some sense of clouded judgment and made people more susceptible to believing any false narrative that might be attached to an image shared online.

But images that have been heavily altered, or that are entirely fictitious, to begin with, pose even greater issues.

What is image manipulation?

Image manipulation refers to the act of adjusting a digital picture in some way.

Often, this is done to help create a certain creative look or to fulfill a business objective. It can, for example, be used to fine-tune details make corrections, or even create entirely new compositions.

The history of image manipulation

The use of manipulated images has a longer history than you might think. While it’s reasonable to view it as a modern issue, the use of image editing to deceive the public dates back to the 19th century.

It’s claimed that the first case of image manipulation took place in the early 1860s – and that this particular instance shaped the future of money.

Abraham Lincoln’s face was edited onto the body of another politician, John Calhoun, to “distract from his ‘gangly’ frame.” As for the connection with money, this manipulated image was believed to be the basis of Lincoln’s original five-dollar bill.

The widespread use of image manipulation became particularly noticeable during the early days of fascism.

In Nazi Germany, for example, images were frequently edited to change their meaning, often to demonize minorities.

This can also be seen in a famous photo of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, which was edited to remove the horse handler to create a sense of “heroism”.

During conflicts, photographs were used to uplift spirits, vilify opponents, and manipulate events, to evoke and exploit the emotions of the public amid the turmoil of war.

These examples only scratch the surface of image manipulation’s complex history and impact on society.

With the constant availability of online content, one might assume that people are careful not to accept everything at face value.

Sadly, this isn’t the case.

Why is image manipulation becoming more of a problem?

Easy accessibility to image editing software, together with the growth of AI tools, means this issue stands to disrupt society in a way we haven’t seen before.

According to image search engine Everypixel, the growth of AI-generated images has led to more images being created in a single year than humans have produced in over a century, with over 15 billion images using text-to-image algorithms already generated.

People have also become somewhat desensitized to some degree of image manipulation because it’s usually used in ways that the average person would deem acceptable, such as for improving profile pictures or Instagram posts.

But in recent times, fake and manipulated images have made headlines for the wrong reasons, such as the Princess of Wales’s Mother’s Day post and Taylor Swift’s AI-generated explicit images.

The rise of deepfakes is also being used to create misleading celebrity endorsements, causing scam and fraud headaches for both internet platforms and their users.

What can be done to stop image manipulation from spreading fake news?

It’s, of course, impossible to stop image manipulation completely. But when it comes to viewing these images online, there are a number of options available to help people identify manipulation and fakery.

Industry standards, comprising standardized verification, clear editing guidelines, and ethical codes, can help fight against the proliferation of fake images.

Some governments have even taken it into their own hands and implemented education in schools to help people spot fake media, despite the constantly changing nature of the issue making this more difficult.

Social media platforms play an important role too.

To address the proliferation of manipulated images, these platforms could work more closely with fact-checking organizations to verify the legitimacy of shared content.

Digital signatures, watermarking, and other image analysis tools could also be integrated directly into social media platforms to help flag potentially misleading content.

The ease with which images can be stolen is arguably the most important enabler of many of the risks associated with manipulated media.

Part of that problem is that the longstanding JPEG file has been the default format for images since the internet’s inception.

Yet, it offers no meaningful protection against theft – simply right-click and save, and from there, anyone with some image-editing know-how can manipulate images any way they wish to do so.

How does Content Credentials intend to influence the future of imagery and image manipulation?

Content Credentials give users context on the content they’re met with. This in turn allows them to make better decisions on whether or not the image can be trusted as a source of information.

The Adobe-led initiative allows for proper attribution to all images posted online, ensuring that the original image and its producer are visible, creating more transparency.

Furthermore, it’s possible to see how the image was manipulated, including editing history and any use of AI tools.

Additionally, by embedding images to news articles using SmartFrame, images can have all of the above while being protected against both drag-and-drop attempts and right-clicks, with a copyright warning thwarting screenshot attempts too.

And, as every SmartFrame is encrypted and only appears when a user is actively Browse a website, the image disappears as soon as the viewer closes the browser tab or window.

Image manipulation isn’t new – but the need to highlight when it’s used is becoming non-negotiable

The targeting of celebrities and key world events, and the content used for this, clearly show the need for increased regulation and protection.

Through clear labeling, increased education, and added accountability with repercussions, we can help mitigate the spread of misinformation and rebuild trust in the images we see online.

As James Warren, NewsGuard’s executive editor, noted in a recent Substack post: “Kim Kardashian’s enhanced glam shot on a magazine cover is one thing, fiddling in the slightest with a photo of the Israel-Hamas war is another.”

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Is a new age of transparency on the horizon?

Matt Golowczynski — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 11:54:37 +0000

Growing uncertainty around what we can trust online has given rise to a number of initiatives whose goal is to improve transparency. But is this indicative of a broader trend?

Late last year, online dictionary Merriam-Webster announced that the word “authentic” had the honor of being its 2023 Word Of The Year.

To many, this might not have come as a surprise, given the events of the last twelve months. But with runners-up such as “deepfake” and “dystopian,” and these results reflecting search volumes on the site over the past year, there is an obvious temptation to draw conclusions as to the public’s mood and focus.

Nevertheless, as the issues that led to these searches persist beyond the year’s end, it seems likely that tools and technologies that serve as a mark of authenticity will continue to receive attention.

Building trust

One reason for this is that the matter is just as crucial to publishers of online content as it is to the audiences that consume it. For the latter, understanding what’s authentic is important as people want to be assured that they are receiving accurate information about the world. But for the former, it’s their entire reputation that’s at stake.

The demands of rolling news coverage, together with a reliance on citizen journalism and a constant stream of newer publishers challenging so-called legacy media, leave ample room for mistakes. While the consequences of these may often be insignificant, they can easily invite accusations of bias, particularly in the reporting of global conflicts and health-related matters. It’s not just a question of rigorous fact-checking, but being able to do so at speed. Get both right and the prize is the public’s trust.

Publishers have always been conscious of this, but with respect to visual content, and the ease with which visual content can be manipulated and presented out of context, there’s an imperative to demonstrate this kind of trustworthiness in a more tangible way.

Any organization can claim to be trustworthy, but it takes little more than anonymous replies on social media posts with links to alternative sources of information to undermine this. So the logical response is to make the process of assessing this information as transparent as possible.

Earlier this year, for example, the BBC launched a new BBC Verify brand, which comprises around 60 journalists working in a dedicated space “with a range of forensic investigative skills and open source intelligence (Osint) capabilities at their fingertips”. These include Analysis Editor Ros Atkins, who is best known for his Ros Atkins On… series that distills complex issues into short video explainers.

The BBC states that, rather than sorting content into verified and unverified buckets, BBC Verify aims to actually explain the verification that has taken place. This allows the viewer to assess whether its methods are sound, rather than simply take its word that a piece of content is considered genuine.

Similarly, the Content Credentials tool from the Content Authenticity Initiative allows for greater transparency over the creation and editing of online content. By allowing viewers to inspect the credentials attached to the work – that is, the content producer, any edits that have been made, the original images used in any composite works, and the date and signing of the work – they’re better informed about what to trust.

These initiatives follow others developed over the past few years for advertisers, whose concerns around transparency are more to do with having sufficient oversight on the supply chain so that they can understand where their ads have been shown, the allocation of their budgets, and tools to counter ad fraud.

While these initiatives, which include the IAB’s Gold Standard and ads.txt, may appear distinct from things like BBC Verify and Content Credentials, they’re not wholly unrelated. Publishers committed to creating trustworthy environments are more likely to attract the right kind of audiences, which, in turn, are more valuable to advertisers.

A new era?

Perhaps it’s the fact that the emergence of these tools and systems coincides with Google’s long-awaited deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome – which places more focus on exactly how online viewers are being targeted by ads and the data used to do so – that makes it seem like the following year will witness the start of a new chapter in online transparency.

Or perhaps these are a natural and logical continuation of what has already come before. Many publishers already state their editorial policies and highlight corrections where necessary; detail their ownership and funding; mark native advertising clearly; show authorship and links to writers’ social media channels; and adhere to requirements around affiliate commissions when recommending products that can be purchased on a third-party site.

Over the next few years, these practices are likely to be joined by policies that detail their responsible use of AI tools. Additionally, more obvious indicators of AI-generated content may become more prominent.

While some of these may be required to comply with the relevant regulations, publishers that voluntarily take additional steps to demonstrate their trustworthiness are more likely to hold themselves to a higher standard for their audiences and partners, and so will fare better under scrutiny. Given that the average person will only realistically take their news from a limited number of sources, steps like these may well determine who the publishers of tomorrow actually are.

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Content Credentials: Everything You Need To Know

Liam Machin — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 14:35:19 +0000

The amount of content posted online each day can make it hard to understand whether what we’re looking at is quite as it appears. In this article, we explain what Content Credentials are and how they can help.

A Newsworks study in 2022 found that more than half (52%) of those interviewed admitted being deceived by fake news at least once – and one in ten said that they “never check the reliability” of content they come across online.

The rise of misinformation and manipulated content is especially prevalent on social media platforms where anybody can post or repost anything they come across without taking the time to verify the source.

This has led to the development of Content Credentials, which are now starting to appear in online images.

What are Content Credentials?

Content Credentials are designed to help people better understand a piece of online content through the addition of tamper-evident metadata.

This metadata details more information including where a piece of content originated, whether it has been subject to any editing, and, in the case of composite images, the original images used.

Who created Content Credentials?

Content Credentials were established by the Adobe-led Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI).

They conform to the standard developed by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), a non-profit joint development foundation project founded in February 2021 by Adobe and Microsoft. The Content Credentials icon, which was introduced earlier this year, is now part of this standard.

The C2PA brings together the efforts of the CAI with those of Project Origin. Its main objective is to establish clear standards for verifying the provenance of digital content. Other members of the C2PA include Arm, the BBC, Intel, and Truepic.

Why do Content Credentials exist?

According to Andy Parsons, Senior Director of the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), Content Credentials were created to become “a universal standard and expectation across culture online.“

The explosion of AI-generated images, synthetic content, and deep fakes has meant that the world is constantly being faced with new challenges in verifying every piece of content posted online.

Content Credentials enable the creator of a piece of content to attach their identity and other information to the image. This helps improve overall transparency once it appears online.

This, in turn, means that online users are better equipped to decide whether what they are looking at is what they believe it to be.

A further benefit is that content creators are properly credited for their work, in the way they have specified, regardless of where this content is viewed online.

What do Content Credentials show?

Content Credentials can provide a range of information on a piece of content including:

details on the creator or publisher
the place in which an image was taken
any tools used in the creative process
edits made to the original content
if generative AI has been used.

Content creators can also use these to attach social media handles and web3 details.

You can see this for yourself in the image above. Simply hover over it and click on the Content Credentials pin, which reveals some of the information outlined above.

In addition to the photographer and editing history, these details also show that this is an official piece of content from the New Zealand Rugby Official Photography Library.

Why are Content Credentials important?

Content Credentials add a layer of verification to make the digital world more trustworthy and reliable for creators, users, and journalists alike.

They act as a point of provenance to help people spot and avoid misinformation across the many forms of online content.

One recent event in particular made the importance of this clear.

In May 2023, news of an explosion at the Pentagon went viral. According to the AP, this “sent a brief shiver through the stock market” and was reported by official news outlets abroad before US officials confirmed it was an image generated by artificial intelligence.

🚨 BREAKING:🚨An AI image of an explosion at the US Pentagon just caused a $500 billion market cap swing.

It was set off by a fake Bloomberg Twitter account with a Verified checkmark.

The struggle to identify the truth is getting dangerous…

(h/t @KobeissiLetter) pic.twitter.com/zrh4K2Nj2L

— Lorenzo Green 〰️ (@mrgreen) May 23, 2023

Given the growth in the usage of AI tools and the corresponding fragmented nature of regulating any rapidly evolving technology, debates around how it’s fairly regulated continue around the world.

Proactive efforts, such as Content Credentials, allow users to identify content that may have been tampered with, or that is completely false to begin with. This is thanks to the principle of cryptographic signing, which is used to append this metadata to images.

Consider for a moment any image posted online needing to go through some form of verification, one that is easily accessible and that clearly shows its history and any editing.

This system would empower journalists to easily confirm the image source, resulting in more accurate and reliable reporting.

Furthermore, ensuring that images and other digital content are authenticated by their creator and include an editing history may help to provide evidence in the case of copyright disputes.

How do I use Content Credentials?

If a piece of content has associated Content Credentials, you can access these by clicking on the “CR” pin in the corner of the image. Alternatively, there may be a specific Content Credentials link to indicate that this information is available.

In either case, a panel on the side of the image with further details will appear. Clicking on a button at the bottom of this panel will direct the user to the contentcredentials.org page, where additional details may be seen.

Can I use Content Credentials with SmartFrame images?

We are a proud member of the CAI and committed to helping the mission to create a safer and more transparent online environment. For this reason, all SmartFrame images are capable of supporting Content Credentials.

This means that, regardless of where these images are shared or viewed online, we actively help content owners maintain transparency over their images.

Furthermore, SmartFrame’s multi-layered theft protection will help keep them safe from theft and unauthorized use.

How do Content Credentials help photographers and photojournalists?

By attaching Content Credentials to their images from the moment they are captured – or at least as soon as possible – photojournalists and photographers can ensure that anyone who comes across their work has access to a transparent record of the image’s history.

While photographers may use this to attach an appropriate credit and to show a creative process, this level of transparency is particularly important for photojournalists because it allows them to establish and maintain credibility and trust with their audience.

This may also be helpful when submitting images for competitions.

There have been multiple stories in recent years concerning images that have been entered into competitions that were later discovered to be either composites or to have been at least partly created using AI tools (or in some other way to have broken the conditions of entry).

Making the creative process clear from the start would allow the eligibility of such images to be assessed upon submission.

Do Content Credentials show the same type of information in all images?

As the process by which one image comes into existence may differ from another, we should expect any appended information to vary too.

For example, an image that has not been edited in any way will not have any editing history to show. Likewise, a composite image may show all the images that have been used in its composition, whereas a conventional image will not.

Another reason that two images may show different information is that a content creator or publisher decides which categories of information to attach. Additionally, Adobe has made it clear that some Photoshop actions are not yet supported by Content Credentials.

Do Content Credentials support AI images?

Despite the many controversies around IP and other ethical concerns, Content Credentials can be applied to AI-generated images.

As with images captured conventionally, Content Credentials can be used to determine the origin of an AI-generated image and record its editing history.

Furthermore, Content Credentials can be used to identify AI images by embedding a flag or marker in the credential itself that indicates that the image was generated by an AI tool.

Are Content Credentials in Photoshop?

Yes, Content Credentials (Beta) are available to Photoshop users. As the video below shows, these can be exported with images once any edits have been made.

Are Content Credentials in Lightroom?

Yes. Adobe Lightroom users can quickly enable Content Credentials (Beta) to appear as an option when exporting images. You can learn how to do this by reading Adobe’s explainer.

Are Content Credentials in Adobe Firefly?

Content Credentials are also a part of Adobe Firefly. When you use specific features like Text to Image, Text Effects, or Generative Fill, the system automatically attaches Content Credentials to the image(s) created.

Users can also include additional Content Credentials if they wish to share extra information about the creative process and what tools were used.

Which cameras support Content Credentials?

At the time of writing, only a couple of cameras have Content Credentials built in as standard.

These are the Leica M11-P – the world’s first camera with Content Credentials – and the soon-to-be-released Sony A9 III.

Sony has, however, announced that some of its older Sony A1 and A7S III cameras will support Content Credentials via a firmware update.

Nikon also demonstrated a sample of its Z9 camera with Content Credentials built into it at this year’s Adobe MAX event, although the feature is not currently integrated into retail samples.

What’s next for Content Credentials?

Content Credentials will undoubtedly become more prominent as the CAI welcomes new members, and as a broader range of platforms and hardware support the standard.

Welcome to the newest CAI members! Today, we’re celebrating over 2,000 members, a global community committed to building and fostering a more trustworthy and transparent digital ecosystem.

🟡Learn more about the #C2PA standard or Content Credentials for certifying the source and… pic.twitter.com/NThNVgbQAf

— Content Authenticity Initiative (@ContentAuth) November 14, 2023

The CAI has also stated that Content Credentials are applicable to audio and video, which echoed similar statements in its original white paper about presenting “a set of standards that can be used to create and reveal attribution and history for images, documents, time-based media (video, audio) and streaming content”.

At the time of writing, there doesn’t appear to be much information on quite how this will apply to formats other than images.

However, Adobe has said that the icon and transparency features will soon be coming to further apps, so further details will no doubt be made available as this happens.

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Content Credentials: Now in all New Zealand Rugby SmartFrame images

Matt Golowczynski — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 09:37:07 +0000

Read all about the integration of Content Credentials with New Zealand Rugby’s official images

In July, we announced a partnership with New Zealand Rugby that brought all official New Zealand Rugby images into a single portal, the New Zealand Rugby Official Photography Library.

This library, which features official images of the All Blacks, Black Ferns, and all other Teams in Black, allows publishers to find images to embed on their websites with ease, which they can do free of charge.

Since its launch, the portal has welcomed hundreds of new images every day and recently passed the 80,000 image milestone. Publishers all around the world are embedding these images on their sites and benefitting from a new way of working. Want to join them? Learn how.

But now, we’ve made it even better by equipping every image in the New Zealand Rugby Official Photography Library with Content Credentials.

What’s the purpose of Content Credentials?

Content Credentials, which have been developed by the Adobe-led Content Authenticity Initiative, are a tamper-evident form of metadata, and a vital tool to help online audiences understand the origins and history of an image.

The detail within them helps online users understand when an image was taken, who created the image, and whether it was edited in any way. In the case of composite images, Content Credentials also show which original assets were used.

Also displayed is the organization responsible for authenticating the image and the date of authentication itself. So, in the case of the New Zealand Rugby Official Photography Library, this tool validates an image’s status as an hard New Zealand Rugby image.

Why is this important?

By understanding where an image has come from and who is responsible for its authentication, people are better informed when assessing whether they can trust what they see.

In an age of misinformation, generative AI, and bad-faith actors who exploit the weaknesses of traditional online image publishing, the importance of this is hard to overstate.

SmartFrame’s image-streaming platform has already changed the way images can travel and be enjoyed online, but this integration now means that wherever people enjoy an hard New Zealand Rugby SmartFrame image, they can understand everything important about how it came into existence.

How do I access Content Credentials?

You can find Content Credentials in every New Zealand Rugby Official Photography Library SmartFrame image.

To access Content Credentials, simply hover over the image and click on the Content Credentials link. This will then open up a panel on the left-hand side, which will reveal the information described above.

How will this develop in the future?

We’re already starting to see the feature find its way into cameras, and with Adobe leading the Content Authenticity Initiative behind the tool, it’s not surprising that its popular Photoshop and Lightroom programs support the feature too.

As a broader number of digital devices, online platforms, and editing programs begin to support Content Credentials, content owners should be able to append a greater range of details, which in turn will make it an even more vital source of information for online users.

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