Let’s be honest – when a new craze hit’s the streets, we are want to be part of it!
Recently – you would have noticed the FaceApp that makes you look older than what you are. It’s all a bit of fun – you share a photo/camera roll with the app, then choose a photo and hey presto – it’s uploaded to their servers and their ‘AI’ (Artificial Intelligence) works it’s magic and you have a photo that’s increased your age and make you look old!
All the stars and celebs are doing it.
I’m sure your friends are doing it.
The kids for sure are doing it.
And because of FOMO – Fear of Missing Out – you’ve probably downloaded it and going to play around with it.
If you haven’t or are going to – there’s concerns about the Russian based company who’s responsible for the app, and what the data might be used for.
Breaking it down – they take your photo’s and place it on their server. This means, they have access and use your photos.
How do you feel sharing your photos with them? – maybe you’re ok with that… but the concerns are, what they can do with them. They can also – find you on all social media accounts, find out all sorts of information about you – and then, well… it all depends, they could do all sorts. You’ve probably heard about ‘deepfakes’. If not – I’ll share more in another blog post but it’s when they can take an image or video, place it on something else and make a video look so realistic that you wouldn’t believe it’s not true.
So the company has come out and said they delete the images from their server – and do not keep them. Which is nice to know.
The concerns raised were that the company is in Russia and may have links with the Russian Government. However, they’ve come out saying there are no such links. And all photo’s are deleted (as mentioned).
FaceApp is run by a company called Wireless Lab OOO.
