Viral face-altering FaceApp raises major privacy concerns about user data

Lately a face-altering app called FaceApp, which edits a person to look old, has been viral. Although the app's usage is increasing daily, concerns are being raised about the app’s privacy policy and that they store pictures.

FaceApp, which was first introduced in 2017, got popular again recently and people started posting pictures that turned them older by using Artificial Intelligence. However, the Russian-owned app has also raised concerns of what it could actually be doing with the pictures and other data.

As per Independent, when a user submits their photo to the app, it reaches FaceApp’s servers for it to make the changes. The terms of the app clearly state that it allows using the pictures in any way without giving anything back in return.

Also, the company’s privacy policy also states that FaceApp is able to gather and save data from the phone, which can be used for ads or other forms of marketing. The terms of service also state that the app may continue to store user data after it’s deleted from the app, as per Business Insider.

However, in a statement provided to Tech Crunch, FaceApp said that the photo processing is done on cloud and only uploads a photo selected by user for editing, which can be stored in the cloud for performance and traffic. Also, they mentioned that most images are deleted from their servers within 48 hours of uploading.

It also mentioned that they accept requests from users for removing all their data from the servers and that no user data is transferred to Russia or shared with any third parties. The statement also pointed out that all features are available without logging in, hence it is not able to link photos to identities. Lastly, it cleared out that they do not upload all pictures from the gallery to the servers, only the selected ones are uploaded in order to edit them.

The app has gone viral on social media because of the ‘#faceappchallenge’ that encourages people to upload their photos in the app and turn them older. Many celebrities too took part in it, including Jonas Brothers and Drake, as per CNN.