I am one of many people who happened to download and use FaceApp over the last 48 hours. I have since deleted the app but not because of what I read in the mainstream media.
What’s FaceApp and why it went viral?
FaceApp is a photo and video editing application for iOS and Android developed by Wireless Lab, a company based in Russia.
This app has ‘the’ best Age filter I have ever seen. It’s incredible. I am sure no one has ever seen anything like this before FaceApp came along. That’s why even the celebrities are doing it. The attention to detail is astounding. No matter what photo you throw at it, it makes the person age in an ultra-realistic way.
Sometimes it’s a little exaggerated, e.g., if you are in your twenties, your aged photos don’t show you how you’d look like in your 50’s but rather your 60’s or 70’s. In short, the goal is to make you look as old as possible.
Regardless, the results are so realistic that it’s almost depressing.
No matter your race, hair style, or skin color, the age filter works well. Even if you already have facial hair, or if the photo isn’t taken from a particularly good angle, it still works flawlessly.
FaceApp can age anyone in a very impressive way. Just look at this picture below and how it was aged. This is one of the default images provided in the app for you to play with. I’d rather not show my own photos here, but I did test quite a few. And I can attest to the fact that results were amazing, though scary at the same time.
This reminds of a case I saw on ‘Forensic Files’. On that episode they were able to catch a criminal after many decades by using a digitally aged image of him to know how he would look when he was older. They had to use bunch of expert engineers and some expensive software to do that. I wonder forensics would use such an app for that now.
FaceApp has a lot of interesting filters. Sadly, most of them are paid, with only few being free. I won’t recommend the ‘pro’ version as I haven’t tried it myself. The good news is the ‘age’ filter is free and I suppose that’s the best filter of them all. It’s the reason they went viral.
What the news media is saying about FaceApp ?
Since the app went viral, all major news sites (especially US ones) have bombarded everyone with negative posts against the app. They are encouraging everyone to ‘delete’ FaceApp, primarily because ‘Russians’ made it. These news reports also emphasize the ‘privacy policy’ of this app, which indeed is unpleasant, but they don’t say how FaceApp’s privacy policy is any worse than apps made by ‘American’ or ‘Chinese’ companies.
For example, another viral app ‘Tik Tok‘ is made by a Chinese company. I personally love the app and I don’t care that it was made by ‘Chinese’ and I wouldn’t be extra worried if it were made by ‘Russians’ or ‘Indians’ for that matter.
There are great minds in every corner of the world and in these days an amazing app, device or technology can come from anyone in any nation. And, it can still be just as valuable, based on its usefulness and utility.
Let’s look at the two key concerns everyone has with FaceApp and try to understand if they are worth a panic.
1. ‘Bad’ Privacy Policy:
Sadly, many of us don’t read those privacy policies anyway because they are intentionally made long, complex, and time-consuming to read. Others don’t read them because they simply don’t understand them or care enough about them.
Let’s assume that you decided to read it and you could even comprehend it very well, well it still wouldn’t matter much. After-all, what could you do about it a privacy policy you don’t like? The only way you can reject the ‘privacy policy’ of any app is by not using it. Fair enough!
But what can you do when you realize you must use it? What if you can’t help yourself, or that app has become a need? While some of us can take the high road, show a middle-finger to an app, and walk away, that’s our decision only. Every individual has their right to make that decision. Despite a bad privacy policy, if someone wants to use an app, that’s their right.
This is especially important with apps that are so popular, they have become necessities of life. For instance, we all need Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Google. Don’t we? What would it take for you to delete them specifically pertaining to your privacy?
Most of us wouldn’t delete these apps no matter what they wrote in their privacy policies.
Let’s be honest, privacy policy for most free apps isn’t good. Remember, we are the ‘product’. It’s a price we must pay for some of the services we use. It’s a risk we must take, even though it is unfair.
If we had to delete every app with ‘bad’ privacy policy (especially those using your data, which most free apps do), we would end with a boring and empty smartphone.
Privacy Policy of this app is no worse than other apps that do similar stuff. I wouldn’t trust most apps when it comes to my privacy. But I won’t necessarily delete every app whose privacy policy I wasn’t comfortable with.
2. It’s made by ‘Russians’:
How many people have lived, worked, or traveled in Russia? Do you know many Russian companies and how they conduct businesses? Are their engineers or companies less moral or more susceptible to government pressure than similar companies or individuals of other nations?
The scare tactics used by the major news outlets are not only sickening but also very discriminative in nature. It’s amazing how the media set different criteria for what is considered ‘discriminative’. It’s wrong to target any group, unless it’s ‘Russians’, because they are ‘evil’.
There are other countries in the world. Some of them have no problems with Russians or Americans for that matter. For example, users in Yemen or Nigeria won’t care if Russians made the app. Yet some international media outlets (European in particular) also saying that it’s dangerous? That’s because some of them are mimicking US media.
In short, if you are in US, you are right to be a little worried. Unless you are an American voter you don’t need to worry. Also, unless you are a really ‘important’ person, you shouldn’t worry anyway. Your ‘data’ may not that *important to ‘Russian’ or ‘Chinese’ or ‘American’ government for that matter.
*Note: As a consumer everyone’s data is useful for ad targeting, but that’s not what I am referring to when I said ‘important’.
That’s not to say internet companies don’t already have data on you. If you are using internet and you have accounts on major websites and apps, and you are using Google, there is a particularly good chance that the Internet has ‘a lot’ of data on you already. Since majority of all internet data passes through US servers, there’s a possibility that authorities could one day access your data (if you ever gave them a reason to do so).
Your data is NOT safer on American servers. It’s not safe anywhere in fact. And scaring someone away from an excellent product (that’s becoming popular) by simply using old stereotypes like ‘Evil Russians’ is wrong. But sadly, it’s a remarkably effective strategy as I am sure millions of people would start deleting the app for that reason alone.
Should you not install it, or delete it if you have already installed it?
I cannot claim to know the intentions of the makers of this app. Obviously most app makers create apps to make money. In this case FaceApp is no different from any other major app we use. Also let’s not forget that every app in the world either makes money from subscriptions, one-time payments, ads or from selling your data to other ad companies (the biggest buyers being Facebook, Google, Amazon etc. and their associated partners).
In fact, FaceApp too appears to be doing that too, i.e. selling your data to Ad companies. At least they are upfront about some of the things in their privacy policy. It would be worst if they simply stole your data and sold it without telling you.
Still, there’s no way to be sure. I would only advocate deleting an app if there were proof the app was doing something illegal, such as running a scam or containing malware or viruses. In which case it would be the responsibility of Google and Apple App Stores, not you.
Obviously, there are millions of apps for them to monitor, but surely, they can carefully check the ones that are most popular worldwide.
I do strongly recommend that you try the app and a few photos of yourself and your family members. Just have fun with the aging filter. I did too.
Before FaceApp had hit the news, I had already deleted it. Mainly because I don’t like keeping Apps around that I don’t use, and I was simply ‘done’ with FaceApp. I had already tried the ‘age’ filter on most of the people I cared to see, and since most other filters were paid and I didn’t want to pay, so I decided to delete it and move on.
Bottom-line: Use your best judgement but don’t delete it JUST because Russians made it.
This article isn’t sponsored by ANYONE. I am not a Russian. There are no affiliate links. I don’t care if you use or not use any app/service I mentioned here because I won’t get paid squat for anything. This article is just one of my morning ‘rants’.
