These days, FaceApp has become the application of the moment. For those who still do not know, it is that with which we can get an idea of how we will see ourselves when we are old and with which we have all laughed (and also a little depressed), and that has been loaded with controversy.
Surely, who else or who less, has downloaded it under that curiosity that has become completely viral, to see us with many more years and use it as we would with any other App.
Well, in addition to the downturn that has given us many to see how it could affect the passage of time to our face (and that of our acquaintances, friends or even celebrities), the controversy has focused on the privacy policy, data processing and transmission and, yes, also included in our entire phone.
Being frank, we could say that there are very few who really read those very long privacy policies. Currently, most of us simply download and press accept when we get the entire string, without really knowing what we are accepting.
It is precise there is the whole problem, since precisely its privacy policy, data processing, and transmission are too vague, without informing us where our data and images go.
We might think that, after the publication of the Organic Law on Data Protection, both in Spain and in the European Union space, the possibility of using personal data without express and fully informed consent has been greatly restricted, which is true. However, this App has been able to find a loophole to skip all our regulations.
Such as the very terms of use of FaceApp, whose servers are in Russia , it is established that if we live within the European Union or are in countries where the laws limit the collection of data differs from that established in The United States reserves the right to transfer the data to servers that are in countries or jurisdictions that are laxer in terms of the processing of personal data.
And this means? Well, very simple, that from the moment we download the application and accept its policy, all the data we provide, including the photographs we upload, we are transferring to the application and it has the possibility of transferring them to a third party even when I couldn’t use them in our normative space.
But beware, because it seems that it goes beyond and would not only be limited to the data we provide to the application, but to all the data of our phone, which poses a risk to the security and privacy of millions of people.
For its part, the company itself wanted to remove iron from the matter by saying that the photographs do not transfer them from our phone to any cloud and, therefore, cannot be transferred to a third party. However, it is true that at no time it is explained what type of information is left and what exactly is stored.
In any case, we must bear in mind that with just a photograph we are giving a lot of information because, for example, by default, every photograph shows an Android user contains metadata such as the position and time that have been taken, the which can be stored, used and assigned by the App.
Seen this way, many may remind other systems used, for example, by social networks such as Instagram or Facebook, where we all know that from the moment we open an account and upload photographs, these are the de facto acquired by of the company, yielding on our part that space that we understood was private.
In any case, a statement was launched from FaceApp in which they affirmed that most of the images that are uploaded to this application are deleted in a period that does not exceed 48 hours, but the method will not be specified at any time that they use to erase it or how we could request it.
In any case it seems that they do give us the possibility of deleting this information that has been generated and of the photographs that we have been able to upload, which has been explained by the company and that would consist of sending requests from the mobile application itself, to through the configuration tab, specifically by clicking on “support” and “reporting an error”, where we would put the word “privacy” in the subject line and these would process the deletion of all documentation and such information but again without explaining the way they do it.
Despite all this, the Democratic leader in the United States Senate, Chuck Schumer, alerted by all these data has requested by letter to the director of the FB I, as well as to the president of the body the telecommunications regulator of that country, so that clarifies all this controversy and if ‘FaceApp’ can and access the personal data of users. In fact, in your letter you can read:
I am writing to express my concern about FaceApp, a mobile application based in St. Petersburg, Russia, which could pose national security and privacy risks for millions of US citizens. It would be deeply worrying if sensitive personal information of US citizens were provided to a hostile foreign power actively involved in cyber hostilities against the United States.
Be that as it may, as part of a conspiracy theory, as part of the cold war, or pure reality, the controversy is served. Now, everyone who does what he sees as necessary.
