South Africans are using a viral app to make themselves look old - but there are questions about the Russian company behind it

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South Africans are using a viral app to make themselves look old - but there are questions about the Russian company behind it | BISouthAfrica

to clarify its policy amid the privacy concerns. Though the terms of service suggest that data can still be transferred to the Russian development team, the company says user data remains on the server side. FaceApp says photos stored on the server are kept to make the editing process more efficient for its users and that the photos are usually deleted within two days.

The company said it also accepted user requests to remove all personal data from their servers. However, FaceApp said the support team was backlogged with those requests. FaceApp also says 99% of users choose not to log in, so they don't have much in the way of identifying information.Robert Mueller's office charged more than a dozen Russian citizens

with crimes related to a vast social-media campaign meant to influence the 2016 presidential election. The St. Petersburg, Russia-based Internet Research Agency used false identities on Facebook, Twitter, and other social-media platforms to spread fake news and propaganda. While the actions of some bad actors in Russia should not condemn every Russian-based company, some FaceApp users and critics are reasonably concerned that their names and photos uploaded to FaceApp could end up being misused or leaked to the wrong company. FaceApp's statement said they wouldn't sell data to third-party companies and that data was not being transferred to Russia.

So far, security experts have not detected any unusual practices with the current version of FaceApp, but as with all apps, users should be mindful of their lack of control when sharing photos and other personal data. French security research

 

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