FaceApp is an application developed in Android and iOS platforms and is becoming viral since few days. This application has spread in nearly 121 countries around the world. The app has become the no. 1 app in the Apple App store (iOS). The app has a huge number of downloads in Google Play store with more than 100,000,000 i.e.100M+ downloads. The app was launched in the year 2017. However, in the last few days, the app has grabbed a lot of attention and is trending all over the world.
Celebrities to sportspersons to cricketers to common people like us are taking the #faceappchallenge and have posted their old age photos on their respective social media handles. People are enjoying and having fun using this app. They are trying different filters to see themselves in a different look. Let’s look at some pictures posted by people in the social media.
FaceApp is developed by a group of Russians and uses Artificial Intelligence with Facial Recognition that lets a young man / woman look old and vice-versa, woman look like man and vice-versa. Even the background of the pictures can be changed. It offers enormous features of face-editing.
But, as we all know the fact that all that glitters is not gold. In this case, it seems to be quite true. As per USA Today, a famous internationally distributed American daily pointed out that the privacy policy of the app states that the app stores the uploaded images to its service. Further, an app developer, Joshua Nozzi took to his Twitter handle to post about the app which is uploading and storing people’s pictures without seeking their permission.
However, when this matter was inspected by researcher of French cyber security, Elliot Alderson, he found there was nothing as such bulk uploading of images on the FaceApp server. The images that were stored only which the user submitted by his /her consent which was confirmed by FaceApp to BBC.
According to a report by CNN, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has notified its candidates of 2020 presidential election to not use the app. It is unfortunate that this innovation in the app market is something which is not without risk.
It is quite unclear at this moment what are the real privacy risks that can be evolved through this. Nevertheless, the advantages of staying away with this app can keep you out of the danger.
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