It’s hard to resist the temptation to see what you’ll look like when you’re old but some experts are warning user to be cautious about using the photo filter app, FaceApp.
Everyone from J.J. Watt to Cardi B has tried the viral app this week which lets users upload their photos, and uses artificial intelligence to change their looks, either older or younger.
However, experts warn that the free “old age filter,” created in 2017 by developers at Wireless Lab in St. Petersburg, Russia, poses security concerns that may give them access to your personal information and identity.
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, states FaceApp’s terms.
James Whatley, a UK-based Digitas strategist said on Twitter, “You grant FaceApp a perpetual, irrevocable… royalty-free… license to use, adapt, publish, distribute your user content… in all media formats… when you post or otherwise share.”
That means they can also use your real name, your username or “any likeness provided” in any format without notifying, much less paying, you, reported the New York Post. They can retain that material as long as they want, even after you delete the app, and you won’t be able to stop them. Even those who set their Apple iOS photo permissions to “never,” as Tech Crunch points out, are not protected against the terms.
Senator Chuck Schumer said in the letter Wednesday to the FBI and Federal Trade Commission that he’s concerned FaceApp could pose “national security and privacy risks for millions of U.S. citizens.”
The New York Democrat is asking the agencies to assess the situation. He says it would be “deeply troubling” if sensitive personal information was provided “to a hostile foreign power actively engaged in cyber hostilities against the United States.”
However, others are pointing out that FaceApp has similiar terms and conditions to other widely used apps like Snapchat.
Photo credit: FaceApp
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
