An approach is provided for obscuring an individual likeness in a digital image based on a privacy policy. The approach identifies an individual whose likeness appears in a digital image taken by a digital camera with the digital image being stored. A determination is made, based on a privacy policy pertaining to the identified individual, whether to obscure the first individual's likeness in the digital image. Responsive to the determination being positive, the approach obscures the individual's likeness as it appears in the digital image.