Experts have warned people against using the free FaceApp application.
The applications which has the ability to vary how your face looks has gained popularity all over the world. It can make your face look older, younger, change your gender or even give your face beads.
According to the experts, using the app, which was developed in 2017 at Wireless Lab in St. Petersburg, Russia, can grant unauthorized access to your personal data and identity.
FaceApp photo filter has become the most downloaded app for purposes of the #faceappchallenge which has been embraced by even top worldwide celebs such as Drake and Kevin Hart among others.
However, most people have not read through the application's Terms and Conditions, which gives the owners rights to modify, reproduce and publish images on the app for their own purposes.
“You grant FaceApp a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, license to use, adapt, publish, distribute your user content, in all media formats, when you post or otherwise share," said UK-based Digitas strategist James Whatley on Twitter.
These gives the FaceApp developers full authority to access and use any detail you provided while using the app. Surprisingly, the image/details you provided doesn't get deleted from their end when you uninstall their app.
This also gives hackers free time accessing your information. According to a security expert Ariel Hochstadt, hackers can track your activity on the site with ease.
“They also know who this image is, with the huge database they created of Facebook accounts and faces, and the data they have on that person is both private and accurate to the name, city and other details found on Facebook," added Hochstadt.
Hochstadt noted that some of the hackers dont work with the Russian government. However, they can still hack into these app and get the information they want.
Your face could be used to access your banking credentials.
"Your face is now a form of copyright where you need to be really careful who you give permission to access your biometric data. If you start using that willy-nilly, in the future when we’re using our face to access things, like our money and credit cards, then what we’ve done is we’ve handed the keys to others.” said a technology expert Steve Sammartino.
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