NCII & Deepfake Glossary
129 definitions covering NCII law, deepfake technology, legal remedies, platform removal, and victim resources, written by the ScanErase team under the 2026 TAKE IT DOWN Act.
Tl;dr
This glossary covers every term you need to understand non-consensual intimate imagery law in 2026. From the TAKE IT DOWN Act to biometric face embeddings to Section 223a notices, each entry includes key facts, FAQs, and related terms.
Core NCII Concepts
What Is NCII?
NCII, non-consensual intimate imagery, refers to any intimate, sexual, or nude image shared without the consent of the p...
Read the guide →Core NCII Concepts
What Is Revenge Porn?
Revenge porn is a colloquial term for the non-consensual sharing of intimate or sexual images, typically by a former rom...
Read the guide →Core NCII Concepts
What Is Image-Based Abuse?
Image-based abuse encompasses a broad range of harms resulting from intimate or sexual images used without consent, incl...
Read the guide →Core NCII Concepts
What Is Non-Consensual Pornography?
Non-consensual pornography is a legal term for sexual imagery distributed without the consent of the depicted person. It...
Read the guide →Core NCII Concepts
What Is Sextortion?
Sextortion is a form of online blackmail in which a perpetrator uses real or fabricated intimate images as leverage to e...
Read the guide →Core NCII Concepts
What Is a Sextortion Scam?
A sextortion scam is an organized, often mass-automated extortion campaign in which perpetrators, frequently criminal ne...
Read the guide →Core NCII Concepts
What Is Online Blackmail?
Online blackmail is the use of digital content, including intimate images, private messages, financial information, or p...
Read the guide →Core NCII Concepts
What Is a Non-Consensual Intimate Visual Depiction?
Non-consensual intimate visual depiction (NCIVD) is the term used to describe any visual depiction, photograph, video, o...
Read the guide →Core NCII Concepts
What Is Image-Based Sexual Abuse?
Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is the preferred academic and policy term for the full range of harms caused by intimate...
Read the guide →Core NCII Concepts
What Is Unsolicited Intimate Imagery?
Unsolicited intimate imagery refers to intimate or sexual photographs or videos sent to a person who did not request the...
Read the guide →Core NCII Concepts
What Is Cyber Exploitation?
Cyber exploitation broadly refers to using digital technology to target individuals for financial gain, sexual gratifica...
Read the guide →Core NCII Concepts
What Is a Non-Consensual Video?
A non-consensual video is any recording of intimate or sexual content involving a real person that was created or distri...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is a Deepfake?
A deepfake is a synthetic media file in which artificial intelligence is used to generate or superimpose a person's real...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is a Deepfake Video?
A deepfake video is a synthetic video in which AI replaces one person's face with another's, typically inserting a real ...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is a Face Swap?
A face swap is an AI technique that replaces one person's face with another in an image or video in real time or in post...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is AI-Generated Imagery?
AI-generated imagery is any visual content created by an artificial intelligence model, such as a diffusion model or GAN...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is Synthetic Media?
Synthetic media is the general category of audio, image, and video content produced or significantly altered by artifici...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is a Diffusion Model?
A diffusion model is a type of generative AI that creates photorealistic images by iteratively refining random noise int...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is a GAN?
A GAN, generative adversarial network, is an AI architecture that pits two neural networks against each other to generat...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is AI Face Generation?
AI face generation refers to the use of generative AI models to create photorealistic human faces, either entirely synth...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is Deepfake Detection?
Deepfake detection is the technical discipline of identifying AI-generated or AI-manipulated imagery and video. ScanEras...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is Deepfake Revenge Porn?
Deepfake revenge porn involves the non-consensual creation and distribution of AI-generated intimate imagery depicting a...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is AI-Generated Nude Imagery?
AI-generated nude imagery is synthetic nudity created by generative AI models. When it depicts a real, identifiable indi...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is Photo Manipulation?
Photo manipulation in the NCII context refers to digitally altering, through compositing, editing software, or AI, cloth...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is Morphed Imagery?
Morphed imagery in the NCII context refers to images that blend real photographs of an individual with synthetic or othe...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is AI Impersonation?
AI impersonation uses generative AI to replicate a real person's visual appearance, voice, or identity to deceive others...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is a Fake Nude?
A fake nude is any digitally created or manipulated image that appears to show a real person without clothing, where no ...
Read the guide →Deepfake & AI
What Is Nudify AI?
Nudify AI refers to a category of consumer tools that use generative AI to algorithmically create nude or partially nude...
Read the guide →Legal Framework
What Is the TAKE IT DOWN Act?
The TAKE IT DOWN Act is the 2026 federal law establishing a 48-hour discovery mandate for non-consensual intimate imager...
Read the guide →Legal Framework
What Is 47 U.S.C. § 223a?
47 U.S.C. § 223a is the section of the U.S. Code that details obligations regarding non-consensual intimate visual depic...
Read the guide →Discovery Framework
What Is a Face Exposure Discovery Tool?
A face exposure discovery tool enables users to identify the online presence of their facial images, helping them unders...
Read the guide →Legal Framework
What Is a DMCA Takedown?
A DMCA takedown is a formal notice filed under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to find content that may infringe th...
Read the guide →Legal Framework
What Is the Right to Be Forgotten?
The right to be forgotten is a principle allowing individuals to find outdated, irrelevant, or harmful personal informat...
Read the guide →Legal Framework
What Is GDPR Article 17?
GDPR Article 17 requires EU-regulated entities to provide access to an individual's personal data upon request when spec...
Read the guide →Legal Framework
What Is a Civil Protection Order?
A civil protection order (CPO) is a court order that prohibits a named individual from specific conduct. In NCII cases, ...
Read the guide →Legal Framework
What Is Statutory Damages?
Statutory damages are a set amount that a victim is entitled to recover under a statute without having to prove specific...
Read the guide →Discovery Framework
What Is a Private Right of Action?
A private right of action is a statutory right for individual victims to pursue discovery on their own, relying on their...
Read the guide →Content Discovery
What Is a Trust and Safety Report?
A trust and safety report is a voluntary content discovery submission to an online platform's internal team finding harm...
Read the guide →Discovery Framework
What Is a Discovery Report?
A discovery report is generated when you upload a face photo, allowing users to find where their face appears online. Sc...
Read the guide →Legal Framework
What Is a DMCA Designated Agent?
A DMCA designated agent is the official contact registered with the U.S. Copyright Office to receive DMCA notices on beh...
Read the guide →Legal Framework
What Is Digital Evidence?
Digital evidence in NCII cases includes any electronically stored information - screenshots, URLs, metadata, threat mess...
Read the guide →Discovery Framework
Deepfake Discoveries by State
As of 2026, 46 U.S. states have enacted legislation specifically addressing deepfakes or non-consensual intimate imagery...
Read the guide →Legal Framework
VAWA and Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has been enhanced through successive reauthorizations to tackle technology-facilit...
Read the guide →Technical Concepts
What Is Biometric Scanning?
Biometric scanning for face exposure discovery uses facial recognition, specifically face embedding extraction and match...
Read the guide →Technical Concepts
What Is Facial Recognition?
Facial recognition is an AI technology that identifies or verifies the identity of a person by analyzing and comparing p...
Read the guide →Technical Concepts
What Is a Face Embedding?
A face embedding is a numerical vector, typically 128 to 512 numbers, that encodes the geometric relationships between f...
Read the guide →Technical Concepts
What Is Reverse Image Search?
Reverse image search is a technology that identifies web pages containing an exact or visually similar copy of a query i...
Read the guide →Technical Concepts
What Is a Biometric Hash?
A biometric hash is a compact, irreversible numerical representation of biometric data, similar to a cryptographic hash ...
Read the guide →Technical Concepts
What Is Image Hashing?
Image hashing creates a compact numerical fingerprint of an image that can be compared against other images to find iden...
Read the guide →Technical Concepts
What Is Image Scraping?
Image scraping is the automated collection of images from websites, social media profiles, or platforms using software b...
Read the guide →Technical Concepts
What Is Content Moderation?
Content moderation is the process by which online platforms review and flag content that violates their policies or appl...
Read the guide →Technical Concepts
What Is Deepfake Detection Technology?
Deepfake detection technology refers to a range of computational tools that analyze imagery to identify synthetic or AI-...
Read the guide →Technical Concepts
What Is Image Scraping for AI Training?
Image scraping for AI training is the practice of collecting vast numbers of images from the internet, often without con...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Images from Google
Google has a dedicated tool for finding non-consensual intimate imagery that operates separately from the source platfor...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Images on Bing
Microsoft Bing allows users to explore their image presence online. Using ScanErase can help find where your face appear...
Read the guide →Image Discovery
How to Find Images of Yourself on Reddit
Reddit hosts a vast array of content, including user-uploaded images. ScanErase helps you find where your face appears b...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Images on Telegram
Telegram is a common distribution channel for NCII, particularly through private channels and bots. Discovery involves u...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Images on Pornhub
Pornhub has implemented dedicated NCII reporting mechanisms following legal pressure and now processes Section 223a repo...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Images on Facebook
Meta (Facebook and Instagram) has implemented dedicated NCII reporting tools including integration with StopNCII.org, wh...
Read the guide →Face Exposure Discovery
How to Find Your Face in Deepfakes on Social Media
Finding deepfake images of your face on social media involves using each platform's reporting mechanisms. Platforms must...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
What Is NCMEC's Take It Down Program?
Take It Down is a program operated by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) that helps minors dis...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
What Is an OnlyFans Leak?
An OnlyFans leak is the non-consensual redistribution of content from a subscription-based platform, most commonly OnlyF...
Read the guide →Victim Experience
What Is Cyber Harassment?
Cyber harassment is repeated, targeted online conduct designed to intimidate, embarrass, distress, or harm a specific in...
Read the guide →Victim Experience
What Is Digital Trauma?
Digital trauma describes the psychological harm caused by technology-facilitated abuse including NCII distribution, cybe...
Read the guide →Victim Experience
What Is Online Grooming?
Online grooming is the process by which a perpetrator deliberately builds a relationship of trust, affection, or depende...
Read the guide →Victim Experience
Who Is Targeted by Deepfakes?
Deepfake non-consensual imagery predominantly targets women, teenagers, and public figures, with 99% of deepfakes depict...
Read the guide →Victim Experience
What to Do If Your Images Are Shared Online
If your images have been found online without your consent, take these steps immediately: document the content, preserve...
Read the guide →Victim Experience
How to Report Sextortion
To report sextortion: do not pay; preserve all evidence; report to the FBI's IC3 at ic3.gov; report to local law enforce...
Read the guide →Victim Experience
How to Find Your Face in Revenge Porn
To find your face in revenge porn (NCII): document the content; use ScanErase to find where your face appears; report to...
Read the guide →Victim Experience
How to Protect Yourself from Deepfakes
Complete protection from deepfake NCII is not possible while you have any public online presence. However, reducing phot...
Read the guide →Victim Experience
What Is Digital Privacy?
Digital privacy is the right to control what personal information about you exists online and who can access it. In the ...
Read the guide →Victim Experience
What Is a Burner Account?
A burner account is an anonymous or pseudonymous online account created with false or minimal identity information. Perp...
Read the guide →Victim Experience
How to Find Images of Yourself Online
Finding images of yourself online, including NCII, requires both standard reverse image search tools and biometric face ...
Read the guide →Statistics
Deepfake Statistics 2026
Deepfake NCII production has grown exponentially since 2020, driven by accessible consumer AI tools. In 2026, an estimat...
Read the guide →Statistics
Sextortion Statistics 2026
Sextortion is one of the fastest-growing cybercrime categories. The FBI received over 18,500 sextortion-related complain...
Read the guide →Statistics
Revenge Porn Statistics 2026
Revenge porn, NCII distributed by intimate partners or ex-partners, affects an estimated 1 in 8 women under 30 in the Un...
Read the guide →Statistics
Deepfakes and Minors
Deepfake NCII targeting minors has emerged as a distinct and rapidly growing crisis. NCMEC received over 26,000 sextorti...
Read the guide →Statistics
Deepfakes and Celebrities
Celebrities are disproportionately targeted by deepfake NCII, accounting for an estimated 58% of all deepfake intimate c...
Read the guide →Identity & Privacy
What Is Doxxing?
Doxxing is the non-consensual publication of an individual's private personal information, home address, workplace, phon...
Read the guide →Identity & Privacy
What Is Online Identity Theft?
Online identity theft is the unauthorized appropriation and use of another person's digital identity, including their na...
Read the guide →Identity & Privacy
What Is Social Media Image Theft?
Social media image theft is the unauthorized copying and misuse of photographs from someone's social media profiles, com...
Read the guide →Identity & Privacy
What Is Online Exploitation?
Online exploitation is a broad category of harmful conduct that uses digital platforms to exploit individuals, including...
Read the guide →Identity & Privacy
What Is Face Recognition Privacy?
Face recognition privacy refers to the legal and ethical concerns around collecting, storing, and using biometric facial...
Read the guide →Identity & Privacy
How to Find Your Face on the Internet
Complete removal from the internet is not possible, but systematic discovery of your digital footprint can significantly...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Your Face on X (Twitter)
X is a prominent platform for image sharing. ScanErase can help you find where your face is displayed in its indexed con...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Your Face on TikTok
TikTok's algorithm can expose your face to a wide audience. Knowing where your image appears is crucial in today's digit...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Your Face on Discord
Discord's private server structure makes it challenging to track unauthorized images, but ScanErase can help you find ma...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Your Face on Snapchat
Snapchat's ephemeral format creates a false sense of security. Screenshots of Snapchat content that have been shared on ...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Your Face on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a critical platform for discovering potential misuse of your image. Find out where your face may appear onli...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Your Face on YouTube
YouTube's scale means that videos can accumulate millions of views quickly. Knowing where your face appears helps you ta...
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Your Face on xVideos
xVideos processes user reports through a dedicated channel. Scanning results help identify matches for your face online....
Read the guide →Platform Discovery
How to Find Your Face on Instagram
ScanErase can identify instances of your face on Instagram and Facebook. Our scanning technology enables thorough discov...
Read the guide →Legal Term
What Is Section 230?
Section 230 provides platforms immunity for user-posted content, but new legislation creates direct platform obligations...
Read the guide →Legal Term
What Is Platform Liability for NCII?
Platforms that do not adhere to valid Section 223a notices may encounter liability issues. This creates obligations that...
Read the guide →Legal Term
What Is a Doe Subpoena?
A Doe subpoena enables victims to uncover the identities of anonymous individuals, allowing them to take action against ...
Read the guide →Legal Term
What Is Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress?
Intentional infliction of emotional distress provides NCII victims a basis to seek accountability for psychological harm...
Read the guide →Legal Term
What Is Publication of Private Facts?
Publication of private facts is a privacy tort that relates to NCII statutory claims. It applies when intimate content i...
Read the guide →Legal Term
What Is a Preservation Letter?
A preservation letter requests that a platform keep user account data and content safe before it is deleted or overwritt...
Read the guide →Legal Term
What Is a Cease and Desist Letter for NCII?
A cease and desist letter may deter some perpetrators, but it can also lead to re-uploads or escalation. Understanding t...
Read the guide →Legal Term
What Is Cyberstalking?
Federal cyberstalking (18 U.S.C. § 2261A) and NCII law often overlap when intimate images are used to harass. Both sets ...
Read the guide →Legal Term
What Is a Temporary Restraining Order for NCII?
A temporary restraining order prohibits a perpetrator from further sharing intimate images. TROs can be granted within 2...
Read the guide →AI Technology
What Is Stable Diffusion?
Stable Diffusion is the most widely used open-source AI image generation model for creating NCII deepfakes. Its open-sou...
Read the guide →AI Technology
What Is a LORA Model?
A LORA model fine-tuned on your photos can generate realistic intimate content of you specifically....
Read the guide →AI Technology
What Is Inpainting?
Inpainting allows AI tools to replace portions of existing photos with generated content, enabling the creation of expli...
Read the guide →AI Technology
What Is Face Reenactment?
Face reenactment creates videos that appear to show a real person saying or doing things they never did. It is important...
Read the guide →AI Technology
What Is Generative AI?
Generative AI, the technology behind ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, poses risks when misused to crea...
Read the guide →AI Technology
What Is the Content Authenticity Initiative?
The Content Authenticity Initiative develops open standards for image provenance that can help identify when images have...
Read the guide →International Law
What Is the UK Online Safety Act?
The UK Online Safety Act establishes criminal offenses for sharing intimate images without consent and mandates that pla...
Read the guide →International Law
What Is the GDPR Right to Find and Report?
GDPR Article 17 requires platforms processing EU personal data to provide access to it on request. Intimate images are p...
Read the guide →International Law
What Is the EU Digital Services Act (DSA)?
The EU DSA requires very large online platforms to enhance transparency for online content including face exposure. It s...
Read the guide →Prevention Guide
How to Protect Your Photos from Deepfakes
No protection is absolute, but restricting public photos, using cloaking tools, and monitoring with ScanErase significan...
Read the guide →Prevention Guide
How to Preserve Digital Evidence of NCII
Digital evidence improperly collected may be challenged. Learn the correct preservation methods and how ScanErase's repo...
Read the guide →Prevention Guide
How to Report to NCMEC
NCMEC's CyberTipline at cybertipline.org is the primary reporting pathway for intimate images of minors. Reports are rou...
Read the guide →Prevention Guide
How to Find an NCII or Deepfake Attorney
NCII attorneys specialize in discovering non-consensual intimate imagery cases, civil lawsuits, and criminal case suppor...
Read the guide →Statistics & Research
NCII Statistics 2026
Approximately 1 in 12 US adults have experienced some form of non-consensual intimate imagery sharing. The vast majority...
Read the guide →Support & Recovery
What Is Secondary Victimization?
Secondary victimization, harm caused by systems or individuals responding poorly to NCII victims, is as common as primar...
Read the guide →Support & Recovery
What Is Digital First Aid?
The first 24 hours after discovering NCII online are the most critical. Digital first aid prioritizes: emotional safety ...
Read the guide →NCII Concept
What Is AI Sextortion?
AI sextortion creates fake intimate images and uses them as blackmail, even when the victim never took intimate photos. ...
Read the guide →Legal Term
What Is the Right of Publicity?
The right of publicity protects individuals from unauthorized commercial use of their likeness, providing additional leg...
Read the guide →Technical Term
What Is Facial Geometry?
Facial geometry, the mathematical structure of facial proportions, is preserved in deepfakes even when everything else i...
Read the guide →Technical Term
What Is Perceptual Hashing?
Perceptual hashing creates image fingerprints that detect visually similar content, aiding in the discovery of unauthori...
Read the guide →Technical Term
What Is a VPN in the Context of NCII?
VPNs can protect victim privacy during NCII research while simultaneously making it harder to trace perpetrators. Unders...
Read the guide →Legal Term
What Is a Privacy Attorney?
Privacy attorneys handle NCII civil lawsuits and digital harassment cases. The CCRI provides free referrals to NCII-spec...
Read the guide →Support & Recovery
What Is Trauma-Informed Support?
Trauma-informed support for NCII victims emphasizes safety, choice, and avoiding re-traumatization. It is distinct from ...
Read the guide →Prevention Guide
How to Secure Your Accounts After an NCII Incident
Account security is a critical step after NCII discovery. Perpetrators who accessed your accounts must be locked out to ...
Read the guide →Start your scan
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