Published in El Pais, July 23rd 2019.
Everyone seems to be trying the latest internet craze, using an application called FaceApp that takes a photo of you and shows what it will look like when you are older as well asthe opposite gender. Now this looks like harmless fun and you might be wondering why I have such a problem with it but a closer look at the terms and conditions that you most likely did not read and blindly agreed to will show you the consequences of using it.
When using FaceApp it not only switches your gender and makes you look older, it stores your image onto its database which alone is quite alarming but once they have that image, they own it, its theirs to do what every they want with it. Yes, that means they can use it for advertising purposes or sell it to other companies for their own use. You can become the new face of some random embarrassing product and there is not a thing you can do about it. Do not expect to be paid for this unexpected modelling job either, as the terms clearly state that you are giving them the image willingly and thus will not be entitled for any compensation either.
Since the application is also Russian based many government officials are also concerned it can be used as a backdoor to all the information stored on your phone and be used for espionage purposes. All of this has raised a lot of red flags and while the company claims most images are deleted within 48 hours and that no information is shared with third parties, the terms and conditions clearly give them the right to do so and there is nothing stopping them from changing their mind in the future.
This type of behaviour is nothing new and I am not asking you to read the terms and conditions every time one is presented to you, but I do think that a free application that requires access to things like our camera we should be wary of. The gimmick to makes you look older will get boring soon, do not let 5 seconds of entertainment impact you for the rest of your life.
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