Surely you have heard of FaceApp, a new application that allows one to take selfies in which, by means of an algorithm, the face of any person can be aged. In addition, we can also make faces look younger or appear like the opposite gender.

The problem lies in the origin of the application.

Several US investigations show that the company’s headquarters are located in St. Petersburg, Russia, which may pose a risk to the security of citizen data. Before the application can be used, the user must accept the terms and conditions, as one does with most apps these days. The point is that the privacy policy is very ambiguous, as customers agree that the data they provide can be transferred to third parties for commercial purposes. In this type of clauses, it should be stated for what purpose the data will be used and we must give our consent for each one. Russia being a country that does not belong to the European Union, this regulation becomes difficult to apply, in addition to it being a very hostile foreign power.

The fact of transferring our data through this application can generate numerous inconveniences. By accepting the clause, we are consenting that our face or our fingerprint may be used for negative purposes. There are suspicions that many companies are using anonymous faces without having asked their owners for consent because they are on social networks.

However, the main developer of FaceApp has denied the sale or exchange of user data to third parties, as the processing of all photos is done in the cloud and they are not transferred to Russia at any time. In addition, it also ensures that most users do not register, so they do not have access to any data that can identify us.