Is Face App dangerous? | Is Face App safe to use?

It's an app on your phone that has completely exploded it's become one of the most downloaded programs in recent memory and it's a social media trend like nothing that you've seen in the recent past it's truly breaking the internet and it involves posting an older version of yourself through face app the app that makes it possible that's what it's called face app celebrities both national and international have been posting pictures of themselves using the app where it allows you to take a picture and transform yourself it is something where you look very much older than you are right now but there are massive concerns about data theft and privacy that have been raised over face app it's manufactured by a Russian software company Wireless lab which has a clause that gives the firm irrevocable access to use the photos that you upload without any royalty and in perpetuity the photographs are uploaded onto the app servers there are also fears that the app uploads all data to Russian servers claim denied by the firm there is a genuine concern that users photos can be utilized by these apps to teach its algorithms how people's faces change with age and then perhaps misuse them for accessibility functionality in future apps.

Actually, there is a dark side to all of these apps whenever we are using an app that demands access to photos or that is asking you to upload a photo somewhere there is always a risk that the photo can be misused or whatever information that the app can collect from that photograph can be misused so primarily I think there are two concerns here one is the concern that the photo that you are uploading into this app face app is going to be with face-up forever and that they can use that photo as well as they can manipulate that photo in whatever way they want they want to do the other major concern here is that they can use these photographs which you are uploading to train its algorithms and machine learning systems to identify people how they age and you know how their faces change and then they can use this information in creating surveillance networks coupled with the CCTV is here they're everywhere and they can come up again utilize that information to create something that is not such a fun thing as the age filter it seems very fun that okay fine I mean let's let me see how I am looking after body used to how I will look after 40 years and let me see that so it's kind of seems like a fun app but yes obviously there is a privacy risk with this kind of apps there is a there is another side to it and that's therewith all such apps.

Behave a number around over 150 million people Wow helped use this app until now and no doubt millions of them are from India the problem here is this that the way these apps have been designed they are designed to play on the psychology of their users yes the way we you know they exploit the vanity or they exploit that the fact that we are craving some of the attention or some of the fun all the time so they exploit that fact to gather some of the data which they won't exactly disclose how they are going to use but they can use it in so many different ways they can use it to target advertisements they can use it to use it for surveillance they can use that data to train their algorithms or make their machine learning systems better which they can then sell to say government companies so

I mean it's not costing us anything right now and we are getting that fun out of it but in return we are giving these companies some very valuable data which they can use in so many different ways is the reason why the terms and conditions clearly says that whatever photo you upload yes the app resolves right to use it in whatever way it deems fit yeah so the fine.

Face App has an app has got some fundamental problem areas these problem areas come in the buckets of cyber security privacy data protection and personal rights nice first and foremost it's one of those rare apps which tells up in its terms and conditions that hey guys we are not guaranteeing the cyber security of your data so we are unsecured if you are happy with us take our service on an anti-virus business so that's the first big stuff that comes in their terms and conditions second it is gone ahead and piggy riding on the sensitive data the personally identifiable data people because its terms and conditions cut all your hands and put them on the table, they clearly say that you are giving the company a perpetual ninety nine-year-old license over which is royalty-free to wait and not just use your photograph and all your data also to monetize it number three they don't seem to have any specific respect for your privacy right so if you are not caring about privacy maybe you need to jump in but in case if you want to salvage whatever limited remains of your privacy then I think phase app is not the place to be and finally, I think it's a big issue on data protection that it's not appropriately addressing do you understand this is on for the last for two and a half years it's being run by a Russian company we still don't know where the data is going where is it being saved how's it being retained who is accessing it whether they are even complying with the European Union's general data protection regulation or not so that's why the calls in the last couple of days in America to go ahead for all Americans to ban and get out of exact assumed a lot of significance but unfortunately, in India people are basking more in their vanity that is understanding the long-term ramifications because if they use this kind of an app you should be prepared that you could become a victim of cyber crime over another cyber security breach in the coming time.

It's too late for people who have jumped into the fire because they've already given the data, yes and there's no way they will be able to get the data back also though the service does have a delete option we don't know and they've also said that we had a very big backlog we don't know when we will respond back to you so these are nothing but empty words so whatever you get data that you've lost is okay fine but there's an old Indian saying that the moment you wake up exact particular point or moment to be the morning of your day I mean we need to really wake up and not be part just because the herd is talking about it just because celebrities are become talking about it .I think celebrities around them are going to be far more 4-time victims because of the kind of stuff that they are posting out so yes I believe it's been late but still for people who have not yet jumped into the well of hire yes it's important to sensitize them and banning these apps won't help this app is available in India but it shows no sign of how it's complying with him in law also the Indians law is completely relatively very weak because we don't have a data protection law we don't have a privacy law there are no specific guidelines for mobile applications so all turned on in a toothless wonder legislative framework many generally have I don't think this app is going to be even bothered about the legal frameworks in India so sensitization and capacity-building among users have to be the first option as we move forward.