So How Worried Should You Be About FaceApp Selling Your Data?

Your social media feed might have been flooded recently with photos of your friends digitally aged to look retirement center-ready. After debuting two years ago and (getting slammed for enabling “digital blackface,”) FaceApp has been having another moment this summer. But is this harmless fun...or a threat to national security? Depends on who you ask. From Russia With Love? News broke yesterday that FaceApp, which lets users digital morph their photos, was developed in Wireless Lab of St. Petersburg, Russia. Though there is no evidence that the mobile app has any ties to the Russian government, Democratic lawmakers (still weary of Russia because of the hacked DNC e-mails and Facebook bot trollings of the 2016 election) are not taking any chances. Risk Assessment The Democratic National Committee urged staff members on presidential campaigns to delete the app immediately, and Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, wrote a letter to the F.B.I. director Christopher Wray, saying that the app posed a national security risk. Private LIves As it always is when it comes to new technology, it comes down to privacy concerns. FaceApp uploads user’s photos to the cloud, but does not make it clear that the photo manipulation does not take place on their phone. Despite concerns that the App might upload a users’ entire photo history (which could include sensitive information), TechCrunch found no evidence of that yet. FaceApp’s founder Yaroslav Goncharo is adamant that no data is transferred to Russia, and that the company uses servers owned by Google and Amazon, and that most photos are deleted within 48 hours of upload. Perhaps the fear is overblown, but you can never be too cautious when it comes to Amazon and facial recognition technology. -Michael Tedder Photo: FaceAPP