It was just any other morning when I woke up, and like all the other people the first thing that I got onto was on my mobile. But today was different, there among the headlines were faces. Old faces, young faces, altered and weird faces.
There is this app called FaceApp which was the latest viral trend. Turns out to be another of the Web’s many storm-in-teacup moments.
Not just some random people are using the app but the major celebrities such as LeBron James, Drake, the whole cast of Stranger Things, and many more shared AI-aged selfies on their social media.
*Looks like we actually found the source of the problem.*
I actually ignored it at the initial stage. But the trend keeps on escalating in the coming days. All of my facebook wall was filled with these weird and altered faces. The time came when I thought that I should also install this app. But as I was thinking that I stepped onto an interesting article. The article read:
FaceApp: Is The Russian Face-Aging App A Danger To Your Privacy?
When I read the few of the starting lines of the article, it literally blew my mind. It reads something like:
"Privacy policy with FaceApp is overblown." Its privacy policy clearly states that the app pulls data like your location, IP address and log file information for the purpose of aiming targeted ads at you. With data like that, advertisers could aim ads at users in specific regions. The targeted ads scheme is not something new.'
Faceapp is based in St.Petersburg, and since the source of the trend originates from the U.S. many people automatically associate with US election interference just like the one happened in 2016 presidential elections in the U.S. There was also a notice sent from DNC to the 2020 presidential campaigns, requesting them to delete the app immediately over concerns of what Faceapp was doing with the data.
*And mothers all over the world texted their kids to just delete the app, just in case.*
But when the word of the Faceapp CEO Yaroslav Goncharov takes into account, according to him: "
The app's terms of service and permissions are nothing to be panic over, because the company is not doing any notorious activity with it." He additionally says,
"We simply upload a photo selected for editing, there is no meeting in the middle task happening, you can even check with various network sniffing tools that are available on the internet such as Wireshark, etc."
What I am trying to say is I know people get freaked out when they hear that the company behind Faceapp is Russian but accusing without any proof and here, in this case, it turns out to be no proof to be yelling it as a scandal.
For most of the part, the viral story of this new sensation tells us that we should be more aware of the permission that we give to our endless applications that are running on our various gadgets. We are far too quick to jump into something fun without thinking about the various consequences and implications by giving up our data, just like that.
I, like the other people all across the globe, was tempted when I first use the app and its hard to blame them- the tech behind actually is scarily good. Who wouldn't want to see and share a stunning representation of what they might look like in 30 years?
"Privacy invasions often sneak in through 'fun' disguises."
Just Remember.