IS FACE APP REALLY SENDING YOUR DATA TO RUSSIAN SPIES? | LOVE MAGAZINE
By Juno Kelly.
Face App, like Facetune and myriad other AI-based applications, was designed to enable users to alter their appearance in an uploaded photo. Over the last few days the app has taken social media by storm, with its ageing feature, created to depict what users will look like in what appears to be their '80s and '90s, drew particular traction, thanks to the now viral #faceappchallenge. Feeds all over the world have since been inundated with said images, almost eclipsing the meme-frenzy surrounding the area 51 raid.
Users' joy at the app's amusing results was, however, dampened, when concerns began to arise regarding the app's vague, mildly alarming privacy policy and general features. Software developer, Joshua Nozzi, warned people to “BE CAREFUL WITH FACEAPP….it immediately uploads your photos without asking, whether you chose one or not," whilst New York Times writer Charlie Warzel took to twitter to declare that users' images were being shared in the app's headquarters in Saint Petersburg, Russia, “The app that you’re willingly giving all your facial data to says the company’s location is in Saint-Petersburg, Russia,” claimed Warzel in a (since deleted) tweet.
Said theories (and the subsequent hysteria they elicited) have since been largely debunked, with further research theorising that the app does not download users' entire camera role, solely the images they upload - standard protocol for the majority of image-centred applications.
The frenzy was likely spread so rapidly due to the app's association with Russia, and the ongoing concern the American government and people have with regards to Russian spies, a political mind field that dates back from the Cold War, and was re-iterated recently due to the supposed Russian interference in the 2016 election.
In all likelihood, the program is not a Russian spy operation masquerading as an amusing internet fad. It is, however, feasible that images uploaded to Face App are being utilised for various (perhaps untoward) purposes, through being shared with private companies - unavoidable collatoral which is, unfortunately, the case for a large majority of apps in the digital sphere.
Image credit: LOVE ISSUE 5: MERT AND MARCUS AND KATIE GRAND
https://www.thelovemagazine.co.uk/article/is-face-app-really-sending-your-data-to-russian-spies