Daily Times

The shocking number of people in Pakistan including prominent activists have been taking to social media to boast about their altered looks through the creepy FaceApp but privacy experts around the globe have warned people to consider privacy before using this app. And this once again proves there’s little to no real awareness en masse when it comes to privacy.

I wouldn’t even bother highlight the potential face recognition and face mapping work that can be done with the stored pictures because some dismiss those concerns as conspiracy theories – even though many privacy advocates say this can be done. But at least pay heed to some of these things which are of real concern.

FaceApp will use and sell your identity indicators

Yes, let that sync in for a while. By using the app, you just granted FaceApp the consent to use “the User Content, regardless of whether it includes an individual’s name, likeness, voice or persona, sufficient to indicate the individual’s identity. By using the Services, you agree that the User Content may be used for commercial purposes.”

What this means is that FaceApp is free to sell the data you generated using this app including any indicators which might be linked to your identity. Do you feel owned yet?

FaceApp owns your photo now

FaceApp is being criticised for extremely vague and shady terms of service which allows it to own unlimited “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. When you post or otherwise share User Content on or through our Services, you understand that your User Content and any associated information (such as your [username], location or profile photo) will be visible to the public.”

In a world where data and especially if it can be linked to an identity sells and might have its value multifold in future, who knows what potential things can be done using your data

Access to photo gallery

When you grant access to the app to access your photo library, it has access to the entire library and even though the app says it only uploads the photo you want altered.

Uploads to cloud

While most similar apps filters work from within your device, the FaceApp uploads your photo to their server and then processes it.

VPN Mentor’s founder and ex-Google techie Ariel Hochstadt even warned of a whole new chapter it can open up for the hackers who according to him can not only access your data, device information, track and log your browsing history and activities – even if they did that without knowing your identity now have this additional data dump other than they already scraped off of Facebook that they can now use to to determine your identity.

In a world where data and especially if it can be linked to an identity sells and might have its value multifold in future, who knows what potential things can be done using your data. Even if it’s not clear at this point, don’t be so sure if this will be worry-free for you in the coming years.

So while it maybe immense fun to satisfy your curiosity of how you look several years older or younger, you should keep the above factors in mind and not get owned.

There’s also a growing need of mass awareness around data privacy in a land where even progressive politicians have previously stated it doesn’t matter if you have nothing to hide and where you’re considered guilty for trying to protect your personal data. And this, like every other discussion surrounding privacy in Pakistan, warrants the increased need for data protection legislation.

The writer is the founder and editor of digital media and rights blog VoiceOfInternet.com