Last week the aging app FaceApp resurfaced, went viral and made headlines, again. The premise of the app is that you first take a picture of yourself. Then, using filters and AI the app will show you what you may look like when you are much older. This definitely has the right entertainment factor giving one the ability to see into the future and what lies ahead. A few of my friends took their pictures and sent them around. It was interesting and scary all at the same time. I asked one friend how it even gave him an old man’s shirt. He replied that it was actually the shirt he was wearing. Whoops…. What is even more scary is what information was shared with the creator of the app.
Well, I am not sure anyone really knows the extent of what they captured from your phone. They are not really saying. However, it is safe to say that you gave them rights to take at least some information. And I am pretty sure they now own the rights to use your images, both the current and the future ones. To some this is no big deal. Technically, anything you put on Facebook, while they don’t own the data, falls under a “non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license.” Meaning they can do with it as they see fit. This may all seem fine to most until you connect some dots, read about Equifax in the news and the data of 145.5 million people accounts that were compromised. The settlement alone was $700 million. And now a hacker gained access to 100 million Capital One credit card applications and accounts…
This is big business and even bigger opportunity for data piracy.
At HireAbility our approach is simple, we don’t store your data, period. The FaceApp’s popularly resurfacing is a good reminder that, if an entity is offering to do something free with your information, they are storing the information. And who knows what else they might be doing with it.