Semantic Leakage from Image Embeddings

2026-01-30

AI Summary

Although image embeddings do not directly reconstruct the original images, they may still leak semantic privacy. This work formally introduces the notion of “semantic leakage” and proposes SLImE, a framework that recovers semantic content solely from local semantic neighborhood structures while preserving embedding alignment—without requiring task-specific decoders. By integrating off-the-shelf embedding models with a lightweight local semantic retriever, SLImE leverages a neighborhood propagation mechanism to enable efficient inference. Experiments across diverse models—including GEMINI, COHERE, NOMIC, and CLIP—demonstrate consistent recovery of semantic labels, symbols, and coherent descriptions, revealing inherent privacy risks embedded within image representations.

Technology Category

Machine Learning: PrivacyComputer Vision: Bias, Fairness & PrivacyNatural Language Processing: Sentence-level Semantics, Textual Inference, etc.

Application Category

Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Search Tool Learning with LLM: Teaching LLMs to invoke search and make use of retrieved informationSemantics and Knowledge: Methods to enhance, augment, integrate or synergize semantic models such as knowledge graphs and LLMsSecurity and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance

Abstract

Image embeddings are generally assumed to pose limited privacy risk. We challenge this assumption by formalizing semantic leakage as the ability to recover semantic structures from compressed image embeddings. Surprisingly, we show that semantic leakage does not require exact reconstruction of the original image. Preserving local semantic neighborhoods under embedding alignment is sufficient to expose the intrinsic vulnerability of image embeddings. Crucially, this preserved neighborhood structure allows semantic information to propagate through a sequence of lossy mappings. Based on this conjecture, we propose Semantic Leakage from Image Embeddings (SLImE), a lightweight inference framework that reveals semantic information from standalone compressed image embeddings, incorporating a locally trained semantic retriever with off-the-shelf models, without training task-specific decoders. We thoroughly validate each step of the framework empirically, from aligned embeddings to retrieved tags, symbolic representations, and grammatical and coherent descriptions. We evaluate SLImE across a range of open and closed embedding models, including GEMINI, COHERE, NOMIC, and CLIP, and demonstrate consistent recovery of semantic information across diverse inference tasks. Our results reveal a fundamental vulnerability in image embeddings, whereby the preservation of semantic neighborhoods under alignment enables semantic leakage, highlighting challenges for privacy preservation.1

Problem

• semantic leakage
• image embeddings
• privacy risk
• semantic neighborhoods
• embedding alignment

Innovation

• semantic leakage
• image embeddings
• embedding alignment
• privacy vulnerability
• lightweight inference