A couple of days ago, pictures of doppelgangers from the future started surfacing. It seemed a lot like an alien invasion but it turned out that the pictures were just products of an “innocent” Russian invented photo app.
However, the innocence of the app has been questioned by many. A US senator even called for the FBI to investigate claims that the app is breaching privacy laws by keeping our selfies. He stated that the app poses’ national security and privacy risks for millions of US citizens’ – and presumably citizens of any other country that uses it.
Posted on Twitter, he said that the use of facial recognition is so widespread that it could potentially be a threat, with the risk of personal data being used by a ‘hostile foreign power’ thought to be ‘deeply troubling’.
With the letter attached, he wrote: “The @FBI & @FTC must look into the national security & privacy risks now, because millions of Americans have used it. It’s owned by a Russia-based company. And users are required to provide full, irrevocable access to their personal photos & data.”
At the moment, FaceApp’s website says it has over 80 million active users.
It reads: “Transform your face using Artificial Intelligence with just one tap.”
According to CNN, the US’ Democratic National Committee (DNC) has said that its 2020 presidential candidates shouldn’t use the app because of the potential threat posed.
Faceapp has responded to the reports in a statement, saying that most images are deleted from the cloud within 48 hours and that it doesn’t or share any user data with any third parties. It also said that although the core team is located in Russia, the user data is not transferred there.
