ImgKey is a free reference on how digital images prove where they came from, and on the limits of that proof. It covers the C2PA standard and Content Credentials, invisible watermarking and fingerprinting, AI-image detection, classical forensics, verification workflows, and the laws and platform policies that now shape all of them.
The site is written for people who need a clear, citable explanation rather than a product pitch: journalists and fact-checkers, engineers implementing provenance, lawyers and policy staff, educators, and curious readers trying to work out whether an image is real.
Editorial principles
- Primary sources first. Technical claims are checked against the specifications themselves (c2pa.org, ISO/IEC and IPTC documents), official documentation, statutes and regulations, and peer-reviewed research. The specifications index and further reading pages list the main sources.
- Vendor-neutral. ImgKey is not affiliated with the C2PA, the Content Authenticity Initiative, or any vendor of verification, watermarking, or detection tools. Tools are described by what they do and what they cannot do.
- Limits stated plainly. Every approach to image authenticity has failure modes. Pages say what a technique cannot prove as clearly as what it can. See what provenance cannot prove.
- Dated. This field moves quickly. Each page carries a last-updated date, and time-sensitive statements (adoption, laws, platform behavior) are reviewed and revised.
Corrections
Standards are revised, laws are amended, and products change what they do with metadata. When a page is found to be wrong or out of date it is corrected in place and its modification date is updated. Substantive corrections are preferred over silent deletion.
Funding and privacy
ImgKey is a static site with no accounts and no sign-up. It uses Google Analytics to count visits and may show advertising served by Google. Details, including how to opt out, are on the privacy page. Advertising never influences what pages say about any product or company.
Where to start
New to the subject? Read why image provenance matters, then provenance vs. authentication vs. detection. If you have a specific image in front of you, go to how to verify an image.