If a photo appears online, how could a viewer check where it came from or whether it was edited? The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) is an open technical standard for recording a piece of media’s provenance—information about its origin and subsequent changes. It offers a way to inspect a recorded history rather than judge authenticity by appearance alone. section 10.23
A C2PA record can include when and where a photo or video was captured, the device used, and information about later edits. A digital signature protects that information, making it possible to verify the record. The approach can also document how media is created, edited, and distributed. It differs from an invisible watermark, which places a machine-readable signal in the content itself to help identify its origin. section 10.23 section 4.4
A camera credential
In 2025, Google announced that Pixel phones would add C2PA credentials to photos taken with their native camera app. That is one step toward making origin records available to viewers, not evidence that every image online has a verifiable history. section 10.23
C2PA’s value depends on creators and platforms using it and on viewers being able to check the records. Adoption remains limited and uneven; broad cross-platform support and easy verification are unresolved. Generative AI systems could use the same approach for synthetic images, but provenance records will not settle the origin of all online content. C2PA is therefore one part of a wider effort to verify digital media, not a universal test for whether something is AI-generated. section 10.23 section 4.4
