Digital transformation spearheaded by SASHA sets new standards for combating non-consensual sharing of intimate images in the online sphere
In the digital age, where privacy and consent are often compromised, a Danish company named SASHA is making waves by redefining online content governance and accountability. SASHA's mission is to create a tool that empowers individuals, embeds responsibility into digital content, and lets them build an internet where privacy, consent, and accountability are not just ideals, but defaults.
SASHA's privacy-first technology aims to prevent image-based abuse and identity theft. The system works by detecting, flagging, and blocking unauthorized use of personal images, including deepfakes and manipulated photos. This helps individuals protect their likeness from being exploited without consent.
To combat identity theft, SASHA ensures secure identity verification and monitoring, handling personal biometric data with stringent privacy protections. This reduces the risk of identity theft by malicious actors.
The technology also incorporates transparency and traceability features in content management, allowing for auditing and redress if abuse occurs. This enhances governance by holding perpetrators accountable while respecting user privacy.
SASHA's system ensures robust protection of images directly on the user's device through a decentralised network. It embeds a watermark, or signature, directly into the image pixels, making it resilient against compression, rotation, filters, and memes. This allows users to prove ownership of an image and potentially identify the first-link leaker if an image is abused online, even if the image is manipulated or screenshotted.
The company's ultimate goal is the B2B2C model, which will make the B2C model redundant. In this model, SASHA's technology will be integrated into messaging and upload functions of other apps, making it easier for users to share images safely and securely.
SASHA was founded in 2020 with a focus on preventing and addressing online image-based abuse (IBA) and identity theft. The inspiration behind the company came from a personal experience of the founder, Thomas Eriksson, who wanted to help a friend whose ex-boyfriend had leaked intimate images of her online.
The team at SASHA has brought on some of the world's best cryptographers and watermarking researchers, including people formerly at Google. They are also in close dialogue with insurance and telco partners that offer digital safety services, and they'll sponsor SASHA premium access for their customers.
SASHA is in discussions with some of the biggest tech players to build its technology into their platforms. The company complies with strict privacy standards such as GDPR, in line with EU laws, and only uses an imprint of each image for recognition, ensuring images remain private.
SASHA's system is made available only to users aged 16+, in line with European privacy laws. If someone finds their image somewhere it shouldn't be, they can scan it and know exactly who shared it. They can then send a takedown request or cease and desist letter directly through the app.
In essence, SASHA is a company developing a privacy-first tool that aims to redefine how content is governed, interacted with, and protected online. By shifting online content governance from reactive moderation to proactive, user-empowered identity protection, SASHA sets new standards for accountability by combining technological enforcement with privacy preservation.
- SASHA's technology, focused on cybersecurity, extends beyond image-based abuse and identity theft prevention, implementing transparency and traceability features in content management.
- In the fashion-and-beauty or lifestlye sphere, individuals can feel more secure knowing their identities are verified and monitored securely, reducing the risk of identity theft.
- With SASHA's system, designed for home-and-garden devices, users can encode a watermark into their personal images for robust protection directly on the device.
- As the company grows, it aims to integrate its technology into travel, food-and-drink, cars, and shopping applications, making content sharing more secure, whether you're on vacation, dining out, driving a vehicle, or shopping online.
- Pets are an important part of many people's lives, and SASHA's system will protect pet owners from unauthorized use of their personal images and potential identity theft.
- By focusing on relationships, SASHA ensures accountability for online abuse, offering victims the ability to trace and reclaim their images if they are shared without consent, and potentially identify the first-link leaker.
