If you are using FaceApp only now, you may think it’s something new. In fact, we are talking about an app that is 2 years old. It’s been created by Russian developers. And it’s gone viral after being used and shared by some celebrities and influencers who took part in the ‘FaceApp Challenge.’ The app has been downloaded over 100 million times on iPhones in recent weeks. We are not talking about its growing popularity in the Google Play store.
Though many are using it to check how they will look in old age, there are other filters as well. They include image-altering features such as adding a smile or appearing to change a person’s gender.
Well, we think you know all those features better than us. But agree when something goes viral so quickly, it causes doubts. FaceApp is no exception. The sudden popularity of the app has triggered growing concerns about how apps use the data and images. Not accidentally, there are doubts this is a spy app. Although the app asks permission before accessing photos, many think it can get what it wants even without anyone’s permission.
So what makes users and researchers doubt it the app’s uprightness? It uses the Artificial Intelligence-based engine to drive the app to depend on biometric data derived from each photo it uses. So data isn’t processed on your phone, but rather by a service based in the cloud. Researchers found that those concerns were unfounded. However, they added FaceApp is not completely risk-free.
‘If you are going to choose to do it and you are going to give away the information, that’s kind of the risk you are going to take,” smartphone user Andrew Dimitriou said. “At the same time, it’s not safe for people to be getting other people’s information like that.’
FaceApp’s developer, Wireless Labs, proves that most images are deleted from their servers within 48 hours of the upload date. Moreover, any user can request the company to delete the images they have updated. But they don’t manage to satisfy all users because the support team us overloaded now.