The entire social media portals were full of pictures showing a person in different age groups – the Face app is responsible for this. Numerous celebrities have joined this hype – and partly triggered it. Among others David Guetta, Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. But how dangerous are our data really when we use the AI app?
How does the Face-App work?
The app from Russia requires a portrait picture of the user. This image is then processed by an artificial intelligence (AI). This processing includes, among other things, changing the hair color or the skin folds so that the processed image shows an elderly person. But it also goes in the other direction.
Artificial intelligence is already well advanced in human imagery. An example is this person does not exist. This website creates a picture of a person who doesn’t exist like that. In the background there is a large database with real pictures of people – an AI creates a picture from this database, which does not exist like this.
Artificial intelligence will continue to occupy us in the future. More and more data will be created through digitalization. And it is precisely this increase in data that increases the potential data set from which an AI learns. This means that artificial intelligence is becoming more and more “intelligent”. This has already been used for Spearphishing attacks via Twitter.
What happens to my picture at the Face-App?
The images are not edited directly on the smartphone. The original version of the image is uploaded to the server and processed there. If you want to use this face app, you have to accept that the data collected by the app will be stored indefinitely and may also be used commercially.
However, it has not been confirmed that the entire photo library is uploaded from the smartphone. Officially, the data is processed exclusively on American servers.
Should I use the Face app?
Basically, the Face-App is free to use. It can therefore be assumed that there is added value on the developer’s side. Since the app can’t do much, it is reasonable to assume that the face data provides the added value. After all, everyone has to answer this question for himself. Basically, the FaceApp is not the only portal that stores personal data from us. According to the Tagesspiegel Facebook has a profile picture collection of about 10 million pieces which is used to teach an AI.
We store a lot of data and process it commercially. A marketing campaign by Amazon shows just how valuable personal data is: For the installation of a plugin you get 10€ credited. It is well known that the company has nothing to give away. This is critically observed by many specialist blogs .
We recommend to refrain from using the Face-App. In the end you should reduce the distribution of your data to a minimum – at least if it is possible. After all, the app is a hype that is over as fast as it came. What remains is the data.
