New AI disclosures for website owners

We have some new AI regulations coming into place this summer!

As of July 1, 2026, the Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA) acknowledges AI disclosure requirements within website policies. If you share personal data with third-party AI tools, you now have to disclose this in your privacy policy. Other US states will amend their respective privacy acts over time.

Secondly, the EU AI Act’s transparency provisions become applicable on 2 August 2026. In a nutshell: you are not allowed to trick people into believing that your AI-generated content is human-made. What matters here is the intent to deceive.

And in a little more detail?

• Any deepfake videos, audio, or photos need to be clearly labeled as such. This includes AI-generated voice-overs on your social media videos, and AI-generated “stock photos”.
• When users are interacting with an AI system (such as customer service chatbots), they need to be informed.
• If your text was written by ChatGPT or a similar system, it needs to be labeled as such.

Is there any use of AI I don’t have to disclose?

If you use AI to help with specific steps to get to the final product, you don’t have to mention it. Examples include:

• Minor AI-assisted copy editing
• AI-assisted brainstorming
• Basic grammar corrections
• Routine photo cleanup that doesn’t create deceptive content

How does this apply to me if I’m not in the EU / in Connecticut?

As always on the internet… technically, if it applies in the EU, it applies whenever anybody from the EU looks at your website. So unless you are actively blocking EU users from visiting your website, you should make sure that you don’t infringe on their rights. China also already has strict disclosure laws in place.

In reality, what’s probably more important, is this: Other jurisdictions traditionally follow suit sooner or later, which means when similar regulations come into place in Canada and in other US states, you’ll already be on top of it!

What does a disclosure look like?

If you are planning to make use of AI tools on your website or social media, you should:

• Add an AI disclosure section to your website policies that identifies where AI is used:
  • Blog posts
  • Images
  • Chatbots
  • Video/audio content
  • Processing of user data
• Add disclosure language where AI-generated content is published – this can be as simple as adding a sentence such as “This content was created with the assistance of artificial intelligence.” or “Images on this page were generated using AI.”
• Avoid presenting AI-generated people, testimonials, voices, or images as real individuals without disclosure
• When using stock photos, illustrations or text content from third parties (including contractors), keep written records confirming that they were human-made
• Keep records of which tools generated content in case future regulations require proof of provenance

As always, if you have any questions, get in touch anytime – Marleen will be happy to help!