Personal data is one of the first global resources in the era of digital transformation. This increased use of personal information made it possible to identify several issues, particularly those related to the security and the purpose of processing this information.
Extremely popular, the FaceApp application has not escaped the public's concerns. The newspaper Le Monde warns against a possible violation of the privacy of its users.
Some companies do not lack innovation when it comes to subtly collecting information without having to respect the rights of individuals to exploit this data. We still remember the scandal about the challenge Facebook, better known as the "10 years challenge".
It was a "fun" challenge that challenged every user to share a recent photo and an older photo, dating back 10 years. This challenge was suspected of populating the social media database to provide even more personal information about its users. Some even suspect its use by the authorities, as explained by Forbes magazine.
We still find ourselves today with an interesting application, which has been placed at the top of the list of application downloads on both platforms Google Play and App store. FaceApp makes it fun and innocent in appearance to change your physical appearance by applying filters to your photos. So you can change gender or look older.
This application is precisely a confusing simplicity. The interface is very easy to use, just download your photos and the program gives you portraits aged several years in a few seconds with a realism quite disturbing.
FaceApp does not conform to RGPD
The General Regulation for the Protection of Personal Data is a law that was adopted by the European Parliament in April 2016, and then applied to Member States from May 2018.
This law aims to regularize and unify the methods of processing this data, from the collection operation to the final deletion thereof. This law allows above all to guarantee your rights, the most important of which remain:
- The right to information: that is to say, your full right to know the purpose of collecting your data (last name, first name, e-mail address, physical address ...), the retention period as well as the actors who have access to it.
- The right to the erasure: that you have right to the total suppression of your information of the systems of the party which collected them.
- The right to the opposition: your full right to oppose the processing of your personal data unless they were collected for an administrative or security purpose.
It happens that FaceApp does not respect the principles and foundations of the RGPD , which does not guarantee any of the aforementioned rights.
Conditions of doubtful use
When you download the application, you check the terms of use that certify your consent to provide irrevocable access to the application for the use of your photos and other data such as your IP address and password history. web pages you viewed.
This makes you a potential prey to phishing and hacking on the web if someone gets into their system. Especially since your photos can be used to develop facial recognition systems or for the constitution of database for commercial solicitation.
Your photos are not stored on your gallery
When you finish editing your photo, it is stored for an alleged and unchecked period of 48 hours on the servers of the company. These are servers that go well beyond European borders and that go through infrastructure owned by Amazon and Google. The abstract territoriality of such a transaction only complicates your ability to seek justice if your information is used dishonestly.
