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FaceApp makes you look older — what else is it doing with your face?

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FaceApp makes you look older — what else is it doing with your face?

While selfie-takers obsesses over what they’ll look like in the future, privacy experts are concerned about the photos they send today

Data security experts say Canada should adopt consumer protection strategies similar to that of the EU.

Photo by Lindsey Wasson

/

Reuters

No, all your friends and favourite celebrities didn’t miraculously reach retirement age — they used FaceApp, a mobile app that uses filters and artificial intelligence to edit photos of people.

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While the app has been around since 2017, and previously went viral thanks to features that let you swap genders or make someone smile, this week everyone is sharing photos using the app’s aging filter.

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FaceApp makes you look older — what else is it doing with your face?

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But, as people obsess over what they might look like in a few decades, privacy experts and developers are concerned about what’s happening to the photos they send today.

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“You basically have no personal control relating to who they could share this information with, sell it, et cetera,” said Ann Cavoukian, a privacy expert in residence at Ryerson University.

“Sensitive information like your biometric — your facial image — you want to control that completely. You don’t want it floating around to third parties, without your positive consent. You don’t know how that information will be used.”

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FaceApp came under scrutiny over its privacy policy after social media sleuths pointed out that the app was developed by Russian company Wireless Labs.

The privacy agreement effectively allows the app to collect a user’s browser history, location, cookies, log files, metadata and more. FaceApp can also use uploaded photos for advertising, without compensation.

The policy says it can also share users’ details with third-party partners for targeted advertising. While the agreement notes the app will not rent or sell your information to third parties, the policy does not specify if businesses legally part of the same group of companies as FaceApp, or companies that join the group in the future are considered third parties.

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It’s a joke — they can do virtually anything they want

While FaceApp did not respond to a request for clarification from the National Post, the company did release a statement in the wake of the social media outcry.

In it, the company dispelled any concerns about its connection to Russia, stating that while the core research and development team is located there, the company does not transfer any user data to Russia.

The statement also clarifies that most of the photo processing is done in the cloud and only photos selected for editing are uploaded to the cloud, rather than all of the photos on a user’s phone, as some had feared. The company also explained why the app uses the cloud to store some photos.

“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 company said in the statement.

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Carlisle Adams, a computer security researcher at the University of Ottawa, said it isn’t enough.

“‘Most’ could mean anything from 51 per cent to 99 per cent (of photos),” he said. “Anything less than 100 per cent is bad and even at 100 per cent, 48 hours is longer than necessary.”

While FaceApp said that 99 per cent of users don’t log in before using the app, meaning the company doesn’t have access to data that could identify the user, Adams said the information collected from users’ phones, like cookies, file logs and metadata can be enough to identify someone.

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