Using the Viral FaceApp seem interesting, it gives users power to change their facial expressions, looks, and now age for several years.
However some security analyst have raised alarm over how safe the App is.
More than 100 million people have downloaded the app from Google Play. And FaceApp is now the top-ranked app on the iOS App Store in 121 countries, according to App Annie.
It is claimed that over 150 million users have accessed the App, and inadvertently giving FaceApp the power to use their pictures — and names — for anything purpose it wishes, for as long as it desires.
According to it’s term of use, ” 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.”
While according to FaceApp’s terms of service people still own their own “user content” (read: face), the company owns a never-ending and irrevocable royalty-free license to do anything they want with it … in front of whoever they wish:
What this means in consequence is that the App can access users information which are stored with the owners of the App, and can be used for whatsoever purpose they wish in the nearest future without getting the user’s permission.
Speaking on this, As former Rackspace manager Rob La Gesse mentioned,”To make FaceApp actually work, you have to give it permissions to access your photos – ALL of them. But it also gains access to Siri and Search …. Oh, and it has access to refreshing in the background – so even when you are not using it, it is using you.”
PhoneArena’s Peter Kostadinov added, “You might end up on a billboard somewhere in Moscow, but your face will most likely end up training some AI facial-recognition algorithm.”.
Once something is uploaded to the cloud, you’ve lost control whether or not you’ve given away legal license to your content. That’s one reason why privacy-sensitive Apple is doing most of its AI work on-device.
Recall that Cambridge Analytical, a British Political consulting firm accessed Facebook users data, to analyse their voting behavior with the aim of selling to politicians. Facebook currently faces the possibility of a $5 billion fine.