Probably during the recent weeks you’ve noticed that your News Feed on Facebook is full of photos from the future that give you an idea of how your friends will look in their retirement years. The mobile application Face App, which uses artifical intelligence to process photos, looks interesting and contagious on first sight. In the last period it has become the most popular application in many countries, with over 100 million android downloads, and number one photo application in iOS.
However, their Terms of Use have caused great discomfort in the global public due to the wide range of authorizations that the users give to the company as a prerequisite for using the application.
„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. When you post or otherwise share User Content on or through our Services, you understand that your User Content and any associated information (such as your [username], location or profile photo) will be visible to the public.“, is stated, among other things, in the Conditions for using the Face App application, which most users, as usually, accept without reading.
This means that every user of the application agrees that the company can permanently use all the personal information that you enter in Face App for any use, including your photos, real name and other personal information.
Behind Face App stands a Russian company
The discomfort has become even greater when surveys by several media have shown that behind FaceApp stands Wireless Lab, a company registered in Russia. A wide debate has started among social networks all over the world over whether this application is another Russian personal data aggregator, or another Russian spyware tool. The owner of Wireless Lab, Yaroslav Goncharov, denied that data was collected for any political use and that they are not even stored in Russia.
The United States will investigate where does the personal data that Face App collects end
US Senator Chuck Schumer officially urged the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate where does personal data of the US citizens end. In his letter, he considers it “deeply disturbing” that such information can be collected in an “unfriendly and powerful state”.
It remains to be seen what the investigation will show, but definitely during a period of Russian hyperactivity in the cyber-political world, it is unnecessary for you to give so much authorizations for the use of your personal data to an unknown company.
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This project was funded in part through a U.S. Embassy grant. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the implementers/authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Government.
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