With one of my websites I've (for years) offered a free service where a visitor submits their image and I retouch it and then show the before-and-after pictures side-by-side. Always before, the pictures have been cropped so much that you can't identify the person.
[ In the submission form the person must verify that they are 18 years or older. And the submission form clearly states that the act of submission transfers the copyright of the photo from them (the copyright holder) to us (so we can post it on our website). ]
These simulations are a "feel good" type of thing. Nobody is ever mad, just appreciative. If there were ever a complaint, it would be a non-issue for me to simply remove the picture from my site.
Now I'm considering a policy change where (for future submissions) the person may choose to have the simulation show their face.
On WikiMedia I see a comment associated with (some) facial pictures that mentions a "Personality rights warning." Evidently this is something separate from copyright issues.
How big of an issue is this "image personality rights" thing? By allowing the person's identity to be reconizable in my simulations, am I opening a big can worms? Or, since the picture are (supposedly) self-submitted is this likely a non-issue for my circumstances? (Mainly I'm just trying to make sure I don't end up inadvertently violating some law in a big way.)
