Privacy concerns about the photo editor FaceApp have emerged anew after the age-defying filter has become viral among users and even celebrities who have been posting older versions of themselves on social media using the app.
In a report by Independent, users who have granted the permission to let the Russian-made app which uses artificial intelligence to alter photos are giving it the ability to use the pictures in any way based on its given terms.
The app states: “You 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 and 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.”
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Apart from using their photo for ads or other types of marketing, users also give FaceApp access to information from their phone.
Meanwhile, a viral tweet claimed that once users open the app, photos start being uploaded on the internet. The app also reportedly gets access to all the photos once it lets users choose which picture they want to edit. However, researchers found that there is no indication that the app is taking all of users’ images.
Despite that, security experts are still advising users to be cautious when using the app.
Meanwhile, FaceApp denied collecting users’ information as well as sharing their photos to third parties.
“99 percent of users don’t log in; therefore, we don’t have access to any data that could identify a person,” FaceApp stated as cited by Techcrunch.
“We don’t sell or share any user data with any third parties,” it added.
According to the app, most photos are deleted from their servers within 48 hours and that they accept requests from users for removing all their data from their servers.
FaceApp stated: “We accept requests from users for removing all their data from our servers. Our support team is currently overloaded, but these requests have our priority. For the fastest processing, we recommend sending the requests from the FaceApp mobile app using “Settings->Support->Report a bug” with the word “privacy” in the subject line. We are working on the better UI for that.”
(Photo source: wccftech.com/ Instagram – @jonasbrothers)
