Understanding the terminology

Think of Content Credentials as a digital record for a piece of content that can show where it came from and what’s happened to it along the way. It could include details like when and where it was created, any edits or changes made (and with what tools), and whether AI was involved.

The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) addresses the prevalence of misleading information online through the development of technical standards for certifying the source and history (or provenance) of media content. C2PA is governed by a Steering Committee with members including Adobe, Amazon, BBC, Google, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Publicis Groupe, Sony and Truepic. From https://c2pa.org/

An open standard is a technical specification that is publicly available and can be adopted by anyone. It is designed to ensure interoperability and compatibility across different systems and platforms.

The quality of being genuine.

Just the formal term for the history of a piece of content—like how and when it was created and edited.

This is a way to make sure that content and its history can’t be secretly altered. Cryptography and digital signatures make it nearly impossible to change anything without the tampering being obvious. This information is built into the content and follows it around wherever it goes.

Watermarks are marks that are often invisible to the naked eye. They can be difficult to remove.

A unique ID or code for a piece of content based on its characteristics. Even if someone tweaks the content a bit, you can still match it back to the original.

This is the entity that signs the Content Credentials and takes responsibility for the assertions.

An entity that takes responsibility for checking the validity of a content credential.

These are lists of sources (like approved signers or certificate authorities) that are used to confirm the trustworthiness of Content Credentials.

These are claims or statements about a piece of content—like who made it, how it’s been edited, and where it’s been shared.

Information that is false but not created with the intention of causing harm.

This is false information created with the express purpose to harm someone or something.