Most professional cameras used in the field lack the internal hardware necessary to cryptographically sign assets or protect signing keys. Without a tamper-evident seal, digital photographs and their metadata (such as GPS and timestamps) are vulnerable to manipulation by AI tools or bad actors.

As these unverified images circulate, they lose their essential context, making it nearly impossible to determine the original version or defend against cheap- or deepfake allegations that distort the facts reported by photojournalists.

Starling Lab pioneered a workflow that utilizes the hardware secure enclave of a companion smartphone to sign media from high-end cameras. 

By tethering a professional camera (such as a Canon R5) to an HTC Exodus 1S phone via WiFi or USB, the Starling Capture app (co-developed with Numbers) instantly receives captured media. The phone’s Zion Vault hardware-secured signer then generates a cryptographic hash of the image and its associated sensor data (barometer, gyroscope, and GPS), sealing it with a private key that never leaves the device’s protected silicon.