'My face is everywhere — and I never agreed to it': Joburg residents speak out on duplicate image theft

A Diepkloof woman found her portrait — taken at a community health fair in 2024 — printed on a wellness pamphlet being distributed outside a Randburg clinic she had never visited. A Braamfontein student spotted his face on a stock-image website after a university photographer uploaded his likeness to a shared drive. Neither gave consent. Neither received compensation. Both are among a growing number of Johannesburg residents raising alarm about what community advocates are calling a duplicate-image crisis.

The issue has sharpened in recent months as artificial intelligence tools have made it faster and cheaper to scrape, replicate and redistribute photographs from social media, government databases and community newsletters. In a city where identity documents, grant applications and neighbourhood WhatsApp groups routinely circulate headshots and personal images, the exposure risk is unusually high. Gauteng's dense informal networks — the same ones that help people find jobs or share public-safety alerts — are also conduits for image duplication at scale.

Soweto to Sandton: the geography of image theft

Community members interviewed across three neighbourhoods described a pattern that cuts across economic lines. In Jabulani, Soweto, residents reported seeing locally taken photographs repurposed on flyers advertising loan sharks and unregistered financial services. On Rivonia Road in Sandton, a marketing professional described discovering his LinkedIn profile photo duplicated on a competitor company's website with an altered name attached. At the Joburg CBD's Mai Mai market, a stallholder said a picture of her taken by a local blogger in 2023 had resurfaced as promotional material for a different market entirely.

The non-profit digital rights organisation Right2Know Campaign, which has an office in Johannesburg and has previously engaged with data protection legislation in South Africa, has noted in public communications that image misuse complaints have climbed alongside the broader adoption of generative AI tools. South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act — known as POPIA, which came into full effect on 1 July 2021 — classifies photographic images as personal information and requires consent before processing. The Information Regulator, headquartered on Sunnyside's Cnr Stanza Bopape and Steve Biko Streets in Pretoria, is the designated body to receive complaints, but community members say the process is opaque and slow.

A 2025 survey by the University of the Witwatersrand's Centre for Journalism and Media Studies found that fewer than 12 percent of South African social media users were aware they could file a formal complaint with the Information Regulator if their image was used without consent. The same study found that images taken at public events in Johannesburg's township economies were among the most frequently duplicated categories of personal photographs online.

What affected residents can do right now

Advocacy groups are urging affected Johannesburg residents to take several concrete steps. The Information Regulator's complaints portal — accessible at inforegulator.org.za — allows individuals to lodge POPIA complaints online, and the office has a walk-in facility for those without reliable internet access. The Legal Resources Centre, which operates a Johannesburg office on Ameshoff Street in Braamfontein, has indicated it takes on public-interest cases involving digital rights, and community members have been directed there by local ward councillors in areas including Alexandra and Orange Farm.

Social media platforms including Meta and Google both operate formal image-removal request tools, though community members note the processes are English-only and assume a level of digital literacy that excludes many residents. The Tshikululu Social Investments Foundation and several Johannesburg-based community media organisations have begun offering digital literacy workshops specifically covering image rights, with sessions scheduled at the Soweto Theatre in Jabulani through August 2026.

The Joburg municipality has not yet issued a formal directive to city departments on image use in community communications, though the office of the City Manager is understood to be reviewing internal photography policies following complaints raised through the ward committee system earlier this year. Residents in affected areas say they are not waiting. Several have begun watermarking their own photos before sharing them in community groups — a low-tech response to a problem that shows no signs of slowing down.