Global privacy bodies unite against harmful AI imagery

Hong Kong's privacy watchdog and nearly 60 international parties have issued a joint statement, expressing serious concerns about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create harmful images without consent.

The signatories include privacy or data protection authorities from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

While expressing their concern about AI systems that generate realistic images and videos depicting identifiable individuals without their knowledge and consent and other harmful content featuring real individuals, the co-signatories remind all organisations to develop and use AI content generation systems lawfully and to adopt a series of measures to protect the fundamental rights of data subjects, in particular children and vulnerable groups.

Ada Chung, the privacy commissioner for personal data, said, “The use of AI systems to generate indecent or malicious photos and videos of individuals, especially children, has recently raised concerns of regulatory authorities in Hong Kong and other areas worldwide."

"As the co-chair of the Global Privacy Assembly (GPA)’s International Enforcement Cooperation Working Group (IEWG), the PCPD has joined hands with its international counterparts to set out fundamental international principles to guide organisations in developing and using AI content generation systems lawfully and safely. The joint statement also reminds all organisations that develop and use AI systems to generate contents to comply with applicable data protection and privacy laws," she added.

The signatories urged organisations developing or using AI content-generation tools to adopt specific protective measures, with a focus on children and other vulnerable groups.

These include implementing strong safeguards against the misuse of personal data, being transparent about AI system capabilities, offering clear ways for individuals to demand the removal of harmful content, and putting in place enhanced, age-appropriate protections for children.

This joint statement was spearheaded by the International Enforcement Cooperation Working Group (IEWG) of the Global Privacy Assembly (GPA), the premier global forum for data protection authorities.

The warning comes as AI use becomes more prevalent in Hong Kong’s workplaces. According to a 2025 survey by the Hong Kong Institute of Human Resource Management, 65% of companies in Hong Kong have implemented AI-based learning initiatives, and nearly half (45%) use AI for content generation.

The survey also found that 73% of companies currently allow employees to use AI at work, a slight dip from 77% in 2024. Meanwhile, only 7% of respondents prohibited AI use in 2024, down from 12% in 2023.

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