Introduction to C2PA
What is C2PA and how to view Content Credentials with Exify.
About C2PA
The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) is an initiative aimed at establishing standards for the provenance and authenticity of digital content. C2PA is a collaborative effort involving various stakeholders, including technology companies, media organizations, and academic institutions.
In practical terms, it is an ecosystem that offers a standard way for apps and devices to record, verify, and view the origin and lifecycle of a digital asset (aka Content Credentials).
About Content Credentials
Content Credentials are embedded within the digital files and can include details such as:
The creator of the content
The date of creation
Any edits made to the content
The issuer of the certificate
The app or device that signed the claim
These credentials serve as a digital fingerprint, allowing users and systems to verify the authenticity of the content and track its history.
Embedding Content Credentials using Lightroom Classic
Before we can see some data, we'll need an image with embedded Content Credentials. The tool which I have on hand is Lightroom Classic, which we can use to sign our image (at the time of writing this is still an early access feature). These are the required steps:
Open an image in your Lightroom catalog and optionally make some edits.
Open the export dialog (Ctrl+Shift+E) and find the "Content Credentials" section.
Choose "Attach to files" in the dropdown. The checkboxes control what information will be embedded.
When sharing your images online, be mindful about the information you disclose. This is relevant for both C2PA and EXIF data, especially if your app or device records personally identifiable information (PII), such as geolocation, name, phone number, physical address, email, etc. Select the options relevant to your specific use case and click "Export":
Lighroom Classic export dialog
Verify and view Content Credentials with Exify
Exify will read and verify image Content Credentials using the official Javascript SDK and certificate trust lists.
It's important to note that while Exify is designed to work only with images, Content Credentials in general can be embedded in more media types, including video, audio and documents.
With Exify you can hover over the image with your mouse to quickly see the C2PA verification status and certificate issuer. You can try it on the image below (Exify installation is not required). You should see a badge in the top-left corner showing "Adobe Inc.":
https://res.cloudinary.com/dha23twl5/image/upload/v1758709173/L1009476_mlgd3d.jpg
Clicking the badge or the Exify icon will show more information under the C2PA section in the opened dialog:
In addition, you can click the contentcredentials.org link to view the image history on the official verification page, and compare the edited version to the original raw file:
Resources for further reading
If you find Exify useful, please consider sharing your feedback on the official Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge stores. Alternatively, you can submit a support request (for now available on the Chrome store only) if you encountered an issue or have a feature request, this helps make Exify better.