A social media flood of pictures of computer-aged celebrities, including Drake and Stephen Colbert, has boosted the popularity of the ”FaceApp Challenge,” but also has privacy experts raising concerns about the image-altering service’s expansive terms of use.
The app, which offers a range of facial image manipulations from adding facial hair to changing genders and age, has terms of use that include granting the rights to reproduce, modify, publish and share photos and other user content.
Privacy expert Ann Cavoukian says that while most apps have problematic policies, FaceApp’s potential sharing of photos and other information with third parties are especially concerning.
Cavoukian says users should be wary about apps that share something as personal as one’s face because it may be used in ways users didn’t intend.
The app, launched by a Russian company in 2017, had previously drawn criticism for offering the ability to change the ethnicity of users’ photos, an option the company removed.
FaceApp has issued a statement clarifying that it only uploads photos to the cloud that users have selected, and that for those who don’t want identifying information shared can bypass signing in.
When you take a trip to the Year 3000. pic.twitter.com/O9Dxpwj6ex
— Jonas Brothers (@jonasbrothers) July 16, 2019
The Canadian Press
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