Read this before installing the 'FaceApp' app on your phone!
| Jul 17, 2019, 18:14 IST
A smartphone is currently breaking the internet. You know which one you’re talking about. FaceApp! This app uses software algorithms to transform your pictures to predict what people in the pictures would look like when they are older. The app has taken over the internet, with everyone sharing their predicted future. Chances are you might have come across a few pictures of a few of your friends looking visibly older in some of their pictures on social media. It is probably the FaceApp app in play. But if you’re tempted to get on the app yourself to see what ageing is going to do your looks, hold your horses! Turns out, the app has some mysterious terms of usage and privacy that you must be vary of.
According to popular opinion, the app is pretty accurate or believable in their predictions. The app is also available on Android and Apple, giving it a universal appeal. But there’s more to it. This is where it gets tricky!
A Twitter user, by the name Elizabeth Potts Weinstein, FaceApp's terms of use mention that if you use the app, you're granting its developers right to use your content, including your selfies, name, likeness, voice, and persona, for commercial purposes.
"You grant FaceApp a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform, and display your User Content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your User Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed, without compensation to you," one of the terms reads.
So if you’re comfortable with the idea of the application using your personal data, go ahead, do it! But we have a feeling you might not be cool with it. FaceApp is hardly the first app to have terms and conditions like this as such language can often be found in other social media apps and websites. Still, it is good to keep in mind that user data is the biggest asset of an online service and it can be sold and transferred to generate revenue. This is notably not the first time when FaceApp has been embroiled in a controversy. Back in 2017, it had raised eyebrows for enabling users to change their ethnicity. Its developers, however, had removed the controversial filter that was designed to change the skin tone and facial features of users to match a certain ethnicity.
In a separate issue in 2017, FaceApp was found to have a dedicated "hot" filter that was aimed to lighten the skin tone of users. The racist filter was removed after it sparked a disagreement by the masses.
According to popular opinion, the app is pretty accurate or believable in their predictions. The app is also available on Android and Apple, giving it a universal appeal. But there’s more to it. This is where it gets tricky!
A Twitter user, by the name Elizabeth Potts Weinstein, FaceApp's terms of use mention that if you use the app, you're granting its developers right to use your content, including your selfies, name, likeness, voice, and persona, for commercial purposes.
"You grant FaceApp a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform, and display your User Content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your User Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed, without compensation to you," one of the terms reads.
So if you’re comfortable with the idea of the application using your personal data, go ahead, do it! But we have a feeling you might not be cool with it. FaceApp is hardly the first app to have terms and conditions like this as such language can often be found in other social media apps and websites. Still, it is good to keep in mind that user data is the biggest asset of an online service and it can be sold and transferred to generate revenue. This is notably not the first time when FaceApp has been embroiled in a controversy. Back in 2017, it had raised eyebrows for enabling users to change their ethnicity. Its developers, however, had removed the controversial filter that was designed to change the skin tone and facial features of users to match a certain ethnicity.
In a separate issue in 2017, FaceApp was found to have a dedicated "hot" filter that was aimed to lighten the skin tone of users. The racist filter was removed after it sparked a disagreement by the masses.