Cellphone technology has been making incredible advancements, a new app has been created that enables users to edit selfie photos of their faces with various filters – one that makes your face look older, a tattoo-adding one, and many others – that look astoundingly realistic.
FaceApp has been downloaded over one hundred million times on Google Play alone. On social media we have been seeing many users, including celebrities, participating in what is being called the FaceApp Challenge, where a participant posts a current selfie alongside that same selfie with an ageing filter applied to it.
As entertaining and fun as this app is, though, many users are worried that their privacy may be at risk with the application. It is being alleged by some users that the FaceApp AI immediately uploads and stores users’ photos without their consent (the app has denied this is the case). Users are especially concerned by this reported breach of privacy after it was recently discovered that FaceApp was developed by Wireless Lab, a Russian-based company. Following the uproar surrounding the alleged hacking by Russians of America’s 2016 elections, this discovery is considered a red flag for some users, who worry their information may be used for things other than image editing.
The recent image blackout on Facebook and Instagram could be contributing to the paranoia around this application; FaceApp prompts you to grant it permissions before you use it, which allows the software to use your pictures and store it on their server. Similar platforms follow the exact same protocol when it comes to using people’s images.
FaceApp is an extremely effective image editing platform. Before installing any application, regardless of what country it has been developed in, it is always important to read and fully understand its terms and conditions before you install it.
Here are some of the #FaceAppchallenge pictures and videos:
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Picture: Facebook