FaceApp: to ensure that the application of the moment is a danger to privacy

FaceApp, the mobile application that adds or removes years to our faces and has become viral in Argentina and elsewhere in the world, is in a "gray zone", we do not know who is really behind and who bears the risks the confidentiality of user data, as announced yesterday by IT security specialists. Unsubstantiated precautions or warning to be taken into account?

Although it is not new and that it appears in the ranking of "best applications" for two years to install on a smartphone, in recent days, Instagram and Facebook have been filled with the latest news. users who have uploaded their photo of how they will see themselves when they are old or in their youngest versions. Hunted by the wave of celebrities who "age" their faces, from Lionel Messi to Marcelo Tinelli, FaceApp has become the country's most downloaded app in recent days, despite the fact that its actual origin and fate of images unknowns are unknown. They deliver it.

"Everything is half-gray," says Cristian Borghello, director of Segu-Info. We do not know how the back works. The application is great, that's why she generated what she generated. But that does not mean it's a reliable application. "

RUSSIAN DEVELOPER

According to current knowledge, the creator of the software is a Russian developer, Yaroslav Goncharov, and the application uses neural networks (an artificial intelligence technique) to digitize the faces of users, cross them into bases of data and modify them in different ways. added as more or less age, beard or bad change, among other filters.

"There would be a person behind FaceApp but it's totally unknown, this proposal is bitter, but that's what we should do every time we upload personal data," says Borghello. There can be any behind, a company, a government … "

For Alexis Sarghel, a computer security consultant, "thanks to this application," any intelligence service could update its databases with current data. And today, software can draw a lot from an image, not just from my face. I provide a lot of information: in exchange for what? Entertainment, recreation We must keep in mind that we are a free artificial intelligence, we are feeding a database of unknown origin free of charge ".

Far from any paranoia or groundless fear, Sarghel asks the following question: "Imagine if every time we go out into the street, someone asks us for a picture of us." Every time we cut our hair, we shave, we change the look, we probably would not give it to him, but with these applications we do it and we abandon our images to drive unknown algorithms. "

As it was said, FaceApp has been around since 2017 and has already generated controversy that prompted it to cancel some of the proposed filters, like the one called "Hot", which clarified the skin of the user for the make "more attractive".

"The viralization is achieved by the fact that they seem famous … as if it was a coincidence that suddenly celebrities were one day with the same application.From the rest it would be necessary to determine the Origin, how to achieve it, if there was an exchange with the influencers. What's behind it? "Sarghel's request.

"It's not bad that we use this tool," says Borghello; the theme is that any downloaded image can potentially end unexpectedly. "