FaceApp raises concerns over privacy: Experts

By Gozde Bayar

ANKARA (AA) - The popular application FaceApp, which offers users a peek at what they might look like in the future, raises numerous privacy concerns, according to experts.

Developed by the Russian company Wireless Lab in 2017, FaceApp has an algorithmic way of generating highly realistic transformations of faces in photographs using artificial intelligence.

The application has had a "snowball effect" on social media by enabling people look younger, older or even change their gender.

"When you download the app, it accesses your private data, photo gallery, mail address, phonebook or even your bank account. So you are letting others intrude into your personal space by downloading the app,” said Ali Burak Daricili, Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Bursa Technical University.

Daricili, author of Comparative Analysis U.S. and Russian Cyber Security Strategies, said to an intensive research is required to determine why this app became suddenly popular.

"It may not be a matter of concern for ordinary citizens, but if you are a senior state official or engineer, your motivations, weaknesses or sexual orientation could be revealed," said Daricili, adding that those people could be threatened with their personal data by the abusers, eventually leading the users to becoming spies.

He was skeptical whether the users' data could be seized by the Russian intelligence.

“The U.S. is one of the countries that is concerned about FaceApp since it considers Russia the strongest threat in terms of its intelligence service,” said Daricili.

He said the U.S. takes this issue seriously since it is hard to detect the espionage activities from Russia which will aim at the U.S. national security, industrial technology or research and development activities.

Daricili added that intelligence agencies can detect such espionage threats to take the necessary measures.

“Keeping away from such applications is an ideal way to protect yourself. You can at least delete the app after using it,” he stressed.

- Tool for virtual theft

"Face-aging applications, which have a snowball effect, have became the most popular applications recently," said Deniz Unay, an Istanbul-based social media specialist, adding that Turkey is one of the biggest downloaders of the app, including celebrities.

Speaking about the risks of such applications, he said although it is hard to predict how this data will be used in the future, one way of using the private data could be for virtual theft.

"It is obvious that this application is stealing data. You should remember that the application can receive all kinds of data,” urging users to avoid downloading such applications.

“If we assume that facial recognition will be used in the future by several private companies including banks, it can lead to huge problems once the data is stored by someone else," he warned.

On the other hand, Unay also pointed out the possible benefits of FaceApp, saying it could be used to locate criminals since their facial features can be stored in the app’s archive.

"A criminal who used FaceApp in China was detected and captured from among 50,000 people in a concert hall thanks to the facial recognition system," he said.

Nasser S. Al-Azwani, head of systems security and administration at Oman’s Sultan Qaboos University, said face-aging applications like FaceApp became popular with the proliferation of such technology.

"People are full of curiosity to try it [FaceApp] without thinking about its privacy concerns and the possible consequences, said Al-Azwani, who conducted studies related to cyber security issues at City, University of London.

By agreeing to the terms and conditions of the app's privacy policy, the users give their consent to the app to share users’ information, including personal information, with other companies, said Al-Azwani, adding that people do not have enough technical knowledge about these applications’ mechanisms of processing images and storing methodology.