Felt cute, might die later.

FaceApp, has made its return to virality! The app first gained media attention about two years ago by allowing users to change the ethnicity of people. Unbeknownst to them, they had opened the door for users to commit digital blackface on themselves and others, which of course, just didn’t go down well with people.

Fast forward two years and everyone seems to have forgotten about the racial hoo-haa.. and all it took was a filter that makes you age 50 years! This is the world we live in, I suppose.

But back to the viral trend that is Faceapp’s aging filter!

Everyone seems to be in on it, and when I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE. From Basketball legend Lebron James..

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz_0YxfgmAp/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

To celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey..

Me hosting #MasterChef Season 50……#faceapp pic.twitter.com/uKnfxUpC1D

— Gordon Ramsay (@GordonRamsay) July 16, 2019

I could go on, really.  The whole thing seems to be a sequel to the 10 year challenge that went viral earlier this year. People seem to be obsessed with their mortality, which I suppose should come as no surprise. We tried out the app in the office and the results can be pretty damn hilarious.

But it’s all fun and games until you realise you’re giving a third party app permission to access your photo library. With the sheer amount of people getting in on the act, inevitable privacy concerns have popped up. So let’s take a look at whether or not you really need to worry about FaceApp.

Ok let us first establish one thing that you probably didn’t know. FaceApp uploads your photo unto the cloud  to give you that age old glow. There is no in-device processing as is often the norm. Cloud processing of your facial data is a valid security concern, especially when it’s done by some Russian app company. The company itself has come out and explained that yes, it does upload your selected photo unto the cloud but it’s reason for this is that the processing needed to power your beloved age accelerating/defying effect, along with other effects, are done in the cloud.

So you see, there is a price you pay for how realistic the thing is!

Okay but does it upload my entire camera roll unto the cloud in the background???

FaceApp have come out and assured us that that it only uploads the photos that users pick to be edited. There have even been security tests done and the company’s claim turns out to be true, so fret not. It does not secretly upload your entire image gallery unto the cloud.

But I swear I read somewhere that the App uses your photos without permission.

Yeah and the dude who wrote the post has actually come out and apologized for his gaffe, which you can find here. He does have some very valid points about why you should be worried about fad apps like FaceApp though.

Does this mean my pictures are on the cloud indefinitely?

Nope. While FaceApp says it might store the photos you’ve chosen to upload, this is to make sure that there are no performance or traffic issues with the app such as when a user repeatedly uploads the same photo to carry out further edits. They did add that most images are deleted from their servers within 48 hours of the upload so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

What about their terms of service? I saw a tweet that..

You mean this tweet? 

This is my favorite part of faceapp's terms of service. pic.twitter.com/iIwHqNAzoL

— Justin Reynolds (@justinsocial) July 17, 2019

The thing about terms of service agreements is that people never actually read the damn thing. When questionable Russian apps like FaceApp gain traction, thats when it suddenly becomes prime time for Americans people to start going through every last sentence, inexplicably committing confirmation bias on their way to their longed after eureka moment!

As is exemplified in the above tweet. It is quite ironic that he’s bringing this up on twitter, as one fellow twitter user pointed out.

he says on Twitter pic.twitter.com/orOzZgjm0a

— Jake (@JakeFeaver) July 17, 2019

Welcome to the internet!

This is in pretty much every social media platform you’re on. This is exactly why we should read the terms of service for social media apps. And if you’re too lazy to read the whole thing (like myself) at least take the initiative to find out the important details.

WAIT. You mentioned something about Russia. 

Well yes. FaceApp is created by a Russian dev team but that doesn’t mean that your data is being sent to the motherland.  In the company statement,  it states that “Even though the core R&D team is located in Russia, the user data is not transferred to Russia.” The guys over at TechCrunch pushed for further details regarding where it’s done and the founder of Faceapp, Yaroslav Goncharov, told them that it uses AWS and Google Cloud.

The company also reiterates that they do NOT sell or share any data to any third parties and that since all of FaceApp’s features are available to users without logging in, 99% of user’s don’t actually log in; therefore the company does not have access to any data that could identify a person.

So FaceApp is safe? 

It looks like it. As safe as pretty much any other app out there that uses your facial data at the very least. But that doesn’t mean you should blindly use the app. Legitimate concerns still remain, such as the fact that people are blindly following trends and downloading random apps without knowing the full extent of what exactly they’re giving away… among other things of course. But that’s a whole other can of worms. For now, take solace in knowing that FaceApp is just as safe as the other crappy fad apps you’re using.