Trust becomes a questionable thing with stuff online. We see so many images on our social media stream and on random websites. For fun purposes, many are photoshopped and are processed via many apps/software.
But things are not always funny! You might want to prove (or know) if a particular image is legit or not.
Forget about captioned lol catz. But think about a celebrity shot captured at the right moment by a press photographer. Or an important photographic evidence of a crucial moment. Or pictures of your property that you are selling online (say, your house, car etc.) – you might want to increase buyer trust by proving that the image is legit.
Izitru (as in “is it true?”) helps you with this. Launched by the startup Fourandsix (forensics?), Izitru acts as a scanner that can tell if an image is legit or not. The home page says “Free image hosting that can prove your photo is real”.
You need to start by uploading your photo. Izitru will then run a set of “forensic” tests, 6 to be precise, to see if the photo is legitimate. After running the tests, based on how the image scored, Izitru displays a trust score. Izitru makes use of the fact that every software leaves a signature if anyone opens an image via the software and saves it again.
Kevin Conner, CEO of Fourandsix says so: “Every device and every piece of software has a somewhat different way of storing their JPEG files”.
Since Izitru is not working backward (at the end of the recipient) but forward (from where the photo originated), it is on the photographer’s hands to care enough to prove if their photo is legit. That is somewhat of a hurdle coz not every photographer would care enough to upload their photos to prove them, unless they are photos of real importance.
In that case, there will be fake/photoshopped images that will be floating on the internet and will be shared in social media. It is not so serious when it comes to funny pictures, but things will not be funny always.
And I remember looking at a Quora thread that showed original and photoshopped images side by side as done by political parties to gain a few votes. Given that social media is now part of election campaigns, Izitru can certainly help in this regard – only if the original photographer of the original photo is willing to take the first step!
Start using Izitru and prove your photos are legit!
