FaceApp - Why You Should Delete or Never Install It

FaceApp is a mobile application for iOS and Android. The Face app is developed by a Russian company called the Wireless Lab.

How FaceApp Works

According to Wikipedia FaceApp uses artificial intelligence to generate highly realistic transformations of faces in photographs.

The app can change a person's face to make it smile, look younger, look older, or change gender.

The Russian developer Wireless Lab released the app in January 2017. It is becoming popular among young users who want to predict their appearances or play around with one's looks.

Access to iOS and Android photos

The viral smartphone application has seen a new surge of popularity. The app requires "full and irrevocable access to their personal photos and data". This could pose "... privacy risks for millions of users' according to one report from the US.

Many of the app's users will recall the breach of privacy laws in the US involving Facebook and Russians in a bid to influence the last presidential election.

What happened is that Facebook was slapped with US$5 Billion fine [Forbes report] for its part it this saga.

Unfortunately, other parties got away since they are in jurisdictions where privacy and data protection laws are weak.

So, next time you want to install FaceApp, ask yourself if that is the right app to use. And, importantly, would you want to give a Russian tech company *access* your phone?