FaceApp is currently making headlines online because it has gotten good at showing users what they’ll look like in decades or years from now.
FaceApp, which was founded in 2017 is an Artificial Intelligence-driven photo editor from Russian company Wireless Lab, which rose in popularity for its realistic facial transformations in photos.
The FaceApp has been made popular because Hollywood stars, footballers, basketballers etc. have used the app and some of the results are hilarious! It’s recently experienced a surge in popularity with the app becoming the third most-downloaded free item from Apple’s App Store.
Despite the fact that FaceApp is making waves, privacy experts have raised some concerns because the app requires users to give up too much personal information and data and that users should be reading the application’s terms and conditions more carefully.
OMJ. Old man Jonas. pic.twitter.com/hPTDTkY601
— Nick Jonas (@nickjonas) July 17, 2019
🚨 ¡ATENCIÓN! 🚨 [Abrimos hilo]
Nuestro plantel para la @premierleague 2039/40… 😂😜👇#VamosSpurs ⚪️ #FaceApp
— Tottenham Hotspur (@Spurs_ES) July 15, 2019
💪 @JanVertonghen
👊 @AlderweireldTob #VamosSpurs ⚪️ #FaceApp pic.twitter.com/BNvRdiLahM— Tottenham Hotspur (@Spurs_ES) July 15, 2019
When these actors grow old#FaceApp pic.twitter.com/HeyxoHah8i
— 9GAG (@9GAG) July 17, 2019
Here are some of the things you need to know before using FaceApp according to ctvnews
FaceApp can use an image essentially how it wants
According to section five of FaceApp’s terms and conditions under “User Content,” when users use the app they’re agreeing to “grant FaceApp a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform.”
FaceApp can make money off you
The terms also state the app can essentially make money off your image without paying users a dime. The app states it can “display your User Content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your User Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed, without compensation to you.” “When you post or otherwise share User Content on or through our Services, you understand that your User Content and any associated information (such as your [username], location or profile photo) will be visible to the public,” it continued.
FaceApp will upload photos to cloud but not the entire photo library
An unsubstantiated allegation against the app is that a user’s entire photo library is uploaded to FaceApp’s servers. But French security researcher Baptiste Robert tweeted that this is not the case. He and other app developers determined it doesn’t upload users’ full camera rolls to remote servers, which is a growing concern of certain apps in the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store. This finding was also confirmed by security researcher and app developer Will Strafach who tweeted that he’d similarly analyzed the app’s network traffic. But Matthew Panzarino, editor-in-chief of TechCrunch, which focuses on tech news, said there was another worry. He wrote that when people edit a photo, it isn’t edited on a user’s device and, instead, FaceApp “uploads your photo to the cloud for processing.”
FaceApp collects your browsing history and location
In addition to photos generated by the app, FaceApp also collects information about browsing history and location. But the terms also state “we will not rent or sell your information to third parties outside FaceApp.” It did explicitly state that the app will share information with “third-party advertising partners” to deliver targeted ads to users.
