• UK
  • World
    • USA
  • Entertainment
    • Celeb
    • Showbiz
    • Magazine
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Gaming
  • Tech
  • Science
    • Education
  • Insurance
  • Business
  • Auto
  • ToS/Contact
    • ToS
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
NewsExplored
  • UK
  • World
    • USA
  • Entertainment
    • Celeb
    • Showbiz
    • Magazine
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Gaming
  • Tech
  • Science
    • Education
  • Insurance
  • Business
  • Auto
  • ToS/Contact
    • ToS
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • LinkedIn

  • Tumblr

  • RSS

Tech

Can you trust FaceApp with your face?

Can you trust FaceApp with your face?
Newsexplored
17th July 2019
ShareTweet
SubscribeRedditGoogleWhatsappStumbleuponPinterestDiggLinkedinTumblrTelegram
Views:
5
FaceApp screenshotsImage copyright FaceApp
Image caption The app has gone viral – but how many fans have read the terms and conditions?

Everyone is talking about FaceApp – the app that can edit photos of people’s faces to show younger or older versions of themselves.

Thousands of people are sharing the results of their own experiments with the app on social media.

But since the face-editing tool went viral in the last few days, some have raised concerns over its terms and conditions.

They argue that the company takes a cavalier approach to users’ data – but FaceApp said in a statement most images were deleted from its servers within 48 hours of being uploaded.

The company also said it only ever uploaded photos that users selected for editing and not additional images.

What is FaceApp?

FaceApp is not new. It first hit the headlines two years ago with its “ethnicity filters”.

These purported to transform faces of one ethnicity into another – a feature that sparked a backlash and was quickly dropped.

The app can, however, turn blank or grumpy expressions into smiling ones. And it can tweak make-up styles.

Image copyright Olly Gibbs
Image caption The app also works on painted portraits – although the effect is sometimes unnerving

This is done with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). An algorithm takes the input picture of your face and adjusts it based on other imagery.

This makes it possible to insert a toothy smile, for instance, while adjusting lines around the mouth, chin and cheeks for a natural look.

So what’s the problem?

Eyebrows were raised lately when app developer Joshua Nozzi tweeted that FaceApp was uploading troves of photos from people’s smartphones without asking permission.

data-ad-format="auto">

However, a French cyber-security researcher who uses the pseudonym Elliot Alderson investigated Mr Nozzi’s claims.

He found that no such bulk uploading was going on – FaceApp was only taking the specific photos users decided to submit.

FaceApp also confirmed to the BBC that only the user-submitted photo is uploaded.

What about facial recognition?

Others have speculated that FaceApp may use data gathered from user photos to train facial recognition algorithms.


This can be done even after the photos themselves are deleted because measurements of features on a person’s face can be extracted and used for such purposes.

“No, we don’t use photos for facial recognition training,” the firm’s chief executive, Yaroslav Goncharov told BBC News. “Only for editing pictures.”

Is that it?

Not quite. Some question why FaceApp needs to upload photos at all when the app could in theory just process images locally on smartphones rather than send them to the cloud.

In FaceApp’s case, the server that stores user photos is located in the US. FaceApp itself is a Russian company with offices in St Petersburg.

Cyber-security researcher Jane Manchun Wong tweeted that this may simply give FaceApp a competitive advantage – it is harder for others developing similar apps to see how the algorithms work.

Steven Murdoch, at University College London, agreed.

“It would be better for privacy to process the photos on the smartphone itself but it would be likely [to be] slower, use more battery power, and make it easier for the FaceApp technology to be stolen,” he told BBC News.

US lawyer Elizabeth Potts Weinstein argued the app’s terms and conditions suggested user photos could be used for commercial purposes, such as FaceApp’s own ads.

But Lance Ulanoff, editor-in-chief of tech site Lifewire, pointed out that Twitter’s terms, for example, contained a similar clause:

Are users aware of all this?

For some, this is the nub of the issue. Privacy campaigner Pat Walsh pointed to lines in the FaceApp’s privacy policy that suggested some user data may be tracked for the purposes of targeting ads.

The app also embeds Google Admob, which serves Google ads to users.

Mr Walsh told BBC News this was done “in a manner that isn’t obvious” and added: “That fails to provide people with genuine choice and control.”

Mr Goncharov said terms in FaceApp’s privacy policy were generic. He said the company does not share any data for ad-targeting purposes.

The app made money through paid subscriptions for premium features instead, he added.

Image copyright FaceApp
Image caption FaceApp offers a number of face-editing features

“The FaceApp terms allow the company to do effectively what they like with photos of their users, which is concerning but is fairly typical,” Dr Murdoch said.

“Companies know that almost nobody reads privacy policies and so they ask for as many rights as possible, just in case it becomes useful, even if their current plans don’t need them.”

What else does FaceApp have to say?

Mr Goncharov shared a company statement that said FaceApp only uploads photos selected by users for editing. “We never transfer any other images,” the statement added.

“We might store an uploaded photo in the cloud.

“The main reason for that is performance and traffic: we want to make sure that the user doesn’t upload the photo repeatedly for every edit operation.

“Most images are deleted from our servers within 48 hours from the upload date.”

The statement said that while FaceApp accepts requests from users to have their data deleted, the company’s support team was currently “overloaded”.

FaceApp advises users to submit such requests through settings, support, “report a bug” and add “privacy” in the subject line.

User data was not transferred to Russia, the statement added.

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) told BBC News it was aware of stories raising concerns about FaceApp and that it would be considering them.

“We would advise people signing up to any app to check what will happen to their personal information and not to provide any personal details until they are clear about how they will be used,” a spokeswoman for the ICO said.

The BBC’s Own It team has produced a video guide to app terms and conditions and an explainer on how to manage your digital footprint.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Share on Skype (Opens in new window)

Related

Related Itemsfaceapptrust
Tech
17th July 2019
Newsexplored @newsexploredweb

Related Itemsfaceapptrust

More in Tech

  • Read More
    Quadriga: Lawyers for users of bankrupt crypto firm seek exhumation of founder

    Views:5 Image copyright Facebook/Quadriga Image caption Gerald Cotten was the only person who had passwords to QuadrigaCX...

    Newsexplored 17th July 2019
  • Read More
    General Election 2019: How computers wrote BBC election result stories

    Views:5 Image caption Reeta Chakrabarti analysed election results on television for the BBC For the first time,...

    Newsexplored 17th July 2019
  • Read More
    The Game Awards 2019: All the winners and big reveals

    Views:5 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The creator of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Hidetaka Miyazaki (c),...

    Newsexplored 17th July 2019
  • Read More
    Where the money is really made at Amazon

    Views:5 Image copyright AWS Image caption Andy Jassy heads up Amazon’s most profitable division Andy Jassy may...

    Newsexplored 17th July 2019
  • Read More
    Emotion-detecting tech should be restricted by law – AI Now

    Views:5 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Affect-recognition systems claim to be able to detect a person’s...

    Newsexplored 17th July 2019
  • Read More
    Man killed by Lexus car being remotely started

    Views:5 Image copyright Getty Images A New York man has died after being crushed by an empty...

    Newsexplored 17th July 2019
  • Read More
    Santa hacker speaks to girl via smart camera

    Views:5 Image copyright Amazon Image caption Ring offers cameras that allow people to keep an eye “on...

    Newsexplored 17th July 2019
  • Read More
    The NHS robots performing major surgery

    Views:5 Image caption Three robotic arms replace the surgeon’s hands during an operation at the Golden Jubilee...

    Newsexplored 17th July 2019
  • Read More
    BBC iPlayer stops working on some Samsung TVs

    Views:5 Image copyright Samsung Image caption This 2015 model is among those that Samsung says will not...

    Newsexplored 17th July 2019
  • Read More
    YouTube bans ‘malicious insults and veiled threats’

    Views:5 Image copyright Getty Images YouTube will no longer allow videos that “maliciously insult someone” based on...

    Newsexplored 17th July 2019
  • Read More
    Nintendo Switch goes on sale in China with just one first-party game

    Views:5 Image copyright Nintendo Image caption Super Smash Bros is the only Nintendo game that has been...

    Newsexplored 17th July 2019
  • Read More
    Internet provider faces big GDPR fine for lax call centre checks

    Views:5 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The fine will serve as a warning to other call...

    Newsexplored 17th July 2019
Scroll for more
Tap
data-ad-format="auto">
NewsExplored

NewsExplored - Making sure all the latest news is explored?

Contact us for help

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • Comments

  • London Bridge attack: Victim Jack Merritt had ‘lust for life’
    UK30th November 2019
  • The art of hunting down stolen treasures
    Entertainment16th November 2019
  • Sonic boom: People woken by loud noise which ‘shook houses’
    UK1st December 2019
  • General election 2019: Labour figures set for crunch manifesto meeting
    UK16th November 2019
  • Why women are fighting back against hair oppression
    USA13th December 2019
  • US governor issues 428 pardons during final days in office
    USA13th December 2019
  • Trump halts new tariffs in US China trade war
    USA13th December 2019
  • Key committee passes Trump impeachment charges
    USA13th December 2019
  • Les Rehrer says:

    Hello Its me :P and thanks for this post

  • optumrx login says:

    Thank For News.

  • Kent Laatsch says:

    Please let me know if you're looking for a writer…

  • Bob says:

    RT News was where I learned that Erdogan controlled isis.…

Copyright © 2018 Top News Theme. Theme by MVP Themes, powered by Wordpress.

Google’s Project Dragonfly ‘terminated’ in China
Netflix shares sink 10% as subscriber take-up slows
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok