Have you joined the Ghibli party yet, sharing your family photo to be converted into a comic version? Did you share it on social media and get some good likes and comments? Well, you might just have invited trouble.
Cybersecurity experts caution that the widespread sharing of images for Studio Ghibli-style portraits presents cybersecurity risks, particularly in digital identity theft, deepfake manipulation, and unauthorised data exposure.
Besides exposing one’s privacy, sharing such photos would also mean willingly providing the high-quality data to the Large Language Models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Grok3. Also, the random websites on the web, which are offering you Ghibli-style images, may not have proper guardrails to secure the photos that you uploaded.
The viral Ghibli-style image trend may seem like harmless fun, but it raises significant privacy concerns beneath the surface, according to Dipesh Kaura, Country Director, Securonix.
Cybercriminals can harvest publicly available images to bypass facial recognition systems, create convincing deepfakes for fraud, or launch highly targeted phishing and social engineering attacks.
“The widespread sharing of images for Studio Ghibli-style portraits presents growing cybersecurity risks, particularly in the areas of digital identity theft, deepfake manipulation, and unauthorised data exposure,” Rohan Vaidya, Area Vice President, India & SAARC, CyberArk, said.
“Additionally, metadata embedded in images, such as location, timestamps, and device details, can be exploited for recce and identity theft. Moreover, the popularity of the trend can lead to a surge in similar websites offering image-sharing and AI-powered editing features, many of which may lack proper security safeguards or be outright malicious,” he pointed out.
As the threat landscape evolves, organisations and individuals must adopt a security-first mindset, carefully reviewing platform permissions, limiting the exposure of sensitive images, and staying vigilant against potential misuse,” he said.
Dipesh Kaura said many users assume that since their photos are already on social media, sharing an animated version is inconsequential. However, by doing so, they are voluntarily providing OpenAI with high-quality visual data that can be used to train its AI models.
“Under regulations like GDPR, OpenAI is restricted from scraping images from the internet without user consent. Yet, this trend enables them to bypass such restrictions, as individuals willingly upload their own photos,” he points out.
This data could be leveraged in ways users may not anticipate—whether for AI training, manipulation, or even resale to data brokers for targeted advertising.
“Users must exercise caution before engaging in viral trends that require personal data. If something is offered for free on the internet, it’s crucial to ask—what’s the real cost? More often than not, it’s your privacy,” he said.