If you are active on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, it’s highly unlikely that you missed out on the 90s yearbook trend. Social media users have been widely sharing nostalgic AI-generated photos of themselves, that look like they were taken out of a high school yearbook from the 1990s (Bandara, 2023). These photos are generated by using the app EPIK. The concept is simple: people download the app, upload real photos of themselves into the high school yearbook feature, and the app generates up to 60 images based on the uploaded images using generative AI. These images come complete with different outfits, hairstyles, poses, retro filters and classic yearbook-style backgrounds, evoking a sense of nostalgia and charm (Yeon-soo, 2023).
Despite the significant rise in popularity of EPIK, some critics of the app have raised concerns over the privacy and data security practices. Users upload their name, gender, and personal photos. The app included a notification stating that the uploaded images will be immediately deleted from EPIK servers once the yearbook images are generated (Grothaus, 2023). However, the app’s disclosure policies lack specificity and do not offer sufficient information on the storage, sharing or deletion of user data (Tech Desk, 2023). Thus, it’s unclear how EPIK uses the data since they do not share those details. Once uploaded, users entrust their data to third-party platforms. Accordingly, there’s the risk that images may be stored and used for purposes beyond just creating yearbook-style images. Therefore, critics argue for the importance of the protection of personal data (Richardson, 2022).
In the end, the 90s yearbook trend that recreates high school photos using AI is a tribute to how quickly technology is developing. It enables us to merge elements of the past with the present in a creative and fun way. However, users must remain careful when it comes to data privacy. By making informed choices about where and how apps share their personal data, users can enjoy the nostalgia of yearbook-style images without compromising their privacy in the digital age.
References
Bandara, P. (2023, October 5). Epik App’s AI ’90s yearbook photo trend is taking over the internet. PetaPixel. https://petapixel.com/2023/10/05/epik-apps-ai-90s-yearbook-photo-trend-is-taking-over-the-internet/
Grothaus, M. (2023, April 10). AI yearbook photo trend: Here’s how to get your retro ’90s high school photo. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90962444/ai-yearbook-app-trend-90s-photo-free-download-how-to
Richardson, R. (2022, December 10). Ai photography is going viral – and raising concerns about safety, privacy and Ethics. TODAY.com. https://www.today.com/news/ai-portraits-may-pose-data-security-threat-experts-say-rcna60785
Tech Desk. (2023, October 8). Ai yearbook photo trend: How everyone’s going back to the 90s with this app. The Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/artificial-intelligence/ai-yearbook-photo-trend-how-to-use-epik-8972828/
Yeon-soo, K. (2023, October 6). How are people doing the AI ’90s yearbook photo trend? they use this app. South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/gadgets/article/3236989/how-do-ai-yearbook-photo-trend-viral-epik-app-creates-90s-style-school-photos-tiktok-instagram
Hi Anne, this is super insightful, I like how you used a very relevant trend! I saw this passing on TikTok, but honestly I did not think about the privacy implications it might have. Instead, the first thing that came to my mind was that the pictures look very photoshopped and unrealistic. Although it’s a fun trend, this is certainly not how people looked like when they were 14 😉 Now also taking the privacy concerns into consideration, it’s interesting to think about how ‘romanticized’ this trend is: young people pay money for an unrealistic trend they see on social media, while EPIK is the dark horse…
Very interesting blog, thank you for sharing! I was not aware of the privacy concerns regarding EPIK, but I also do not find it surprising, considering how most of the websites we use today have questionable practises regarding data collection and the lack of transparency around it. I feel we often look at a website such as this EPIK, or even larger social media platforms incl. Tiktok and often believe it is “free” to us and continue to disregard our privacy concerns, but it often seems the true “price” is the data we give away, which the companies can easily monetize and sell after we sign away our information for them to use. It is also quite a scary trend, considering how biometric data and facial recognition is already used for surveillance by authorities, for example in Hong Kong, raising ethical and privacy concerns for all individuals.
Interesting blog post! I have seen countless TikToks about this trend, so it is interesting to read about this side of it. I did not know anything about the data security of this app and to be honest I do not think I would check this if I would want to use an app like this. So good that you inform us about this! It is scary to think about what AI can turn your personal pictures into and what it could use it for. So I think it is really important to inform the public more often about the dangers of AI with regards to data security. People often see these trends and join them without thinking about the potential consequences.