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FaceApp Now Owns Access to More Than 150M People's Faces and Names

forbes.com

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Re: FaceApp Now Owns Access to More Than 150M People's Faces and Names

#31

Post by parsadotsh »

penagwin wrote: post #7
alunchbox wrote: post #5

Hmm. Would it be possible to run these Apps in a VM like container? allow it access a dummy, empty folder to read from somewhat of a container for all apps? then there would be a manual transfer process between the shared folders after you've saved an image? So when downloading an App it will ask would you want to run this in an isolated environment? and you can, so if it tries to scan over your photo gallery it will…

This is a scoping issue. On iOS devices at least no app has access to your photo gallery unless they explicitly prompt you for permission. That said, many apps need access to the photo gallery - say I want to put a screenshot into discord. The issue is that now Discord has access to ALL of my photos. There needs to be more scoping options. "Allow access to previous 12 photos while you're using the app" kinda deal.

I think Apple wouldn't be too happy in the App Store Review process if they find out your app is uploading pictures without user interaction.

Re: FaceApp Now Owns Access to More Than 150M People's Faces and Names

#32

Post by mikeash »

sailingparrot wrote: post #26
mikeash wrote: post #20

We keep harping on about privacy, and then shit like this happens. There are two possible conclusions to draw. One is that the general public actually doesn’t care about privacy at all. It’s a niche concern. The other is that the general public cares but is completely and utterly clueless about how to defend themselves, to the point that an app can literally say “give us your name and face and we can do whatever we w…

Option 3: No one read the terms of services, and 99% of the app users are not even aware of that, didn't even give it a passing thought.

That falls under the second option. Being capable of defending your privacy means understanding that you shouldn’t willingly give your personal info to random apps.

Re: FaceApp Now Owns Access to More Than 150M People's Faces and Names

#33

Post by tictoc »

sailingparrot wrote: post #26
mikeash wrote: post #20

We keep harping on about privacy, and then shit like this happens. There are two possible conclusions to draw. One is that the general public actually doesn’t care about privacy at all. It’s a niche concern. The other is that the general public cares but is completely and utterly clueless about how to defend themselves, to the point that an app can literally say “give us your name and face and we can do whatever we w…

Option 3: No one read the terms of services, and 99% of the app users are not even aware of that, didn't even give it a passing thought.

Are terms of service somewhat consistent in their language? And if that's the case, couldn't someone build something that scans Terms across products and summarize what exactly it is you are giving up by accepting the Terms?

Re: FaceApp Now Owns Access to More Than 150M People's Faces and Names

#34

Post by Zmetta »

stunt wrote: post #16

The coverage on FaceApp and the way they talk about it is ridiculous. When it comes for instance to Snapchat's numbers, the coverage is about the success of the company. How is FaceApp different than all other apps and social networks that are storing all your photos with location and tags to your friends except that FaceApp is a Russian company? I'm not defending FaceApp. I don't use social networks either for the s…

One is owned and operated in a country of authoritarian-level data-collection and massive public propaganda and the other is owned and operated by a company in Russian which isn't any better but still determines the media narrative.

Re: FaceApp Now Owns Access to More Than 150M People's Faces and Names

#35

Post by marpstar »

hi5eyes wrote: post #25
stunt wrote: post #16

The coverage on FaceApp and the way they talk about it is ridiculous. When it comes for instance to Snapchat's numbers, the coverage is about the success of the company. How is FaceApp different than all other apps and social networks that are storing all your photos with location and tags to your friends except that FaceApp is a Russian company? I'm not defending FaceApp. I don't use social networks either for the s…

the only real difference between snap and faceapp is the media gave faceapp the russian tie in so now they're using it as that combined with federal investigation titles [1] snap is a scarier but most people dont care since its so ingrained into their lives... for whatever reason I never understood.. but my friends used love it even while I warned them how stupid it was so use snap in the first place if you cared abo…

On top of that, FaceApp doesn't request Geolocation permissions while Snap integrates a map of friends in the app itself.

Re: FaceApp Now Owns Access to More Than 150M People's Faces and Names

#36

Post by ryanSrich »

mikeash wrote: post #20

We keep harping on about privacy, and then shit like this happens. There are two possible conclusions to draw. One is that the general public actually doesn’t care about privacy at all. It’s a niche concern. The other is that the general public cares but is completely and utterly clueless about how to defend themselves, to the point that an app can literally say “give us your name and face and we can do whatever we w…

It’s somewhere in the middle. The cultural shift is happening though. And once the market is ready, they’ll need tools. Right now it’s simply too complicated to not only understand what an application can do with your data, but then taking actions on that data (right to be forgotten, etc.) in the future. If you’re at all interested in this space feel free to email me. I’m working on something that isn’t quite ready to discuss publicly yet.

Re: FaceApp Now Owns Access to More Than 150M People's Faces and Names

#37

Post by Cthulhu_ »

mikeash wrote: post #20

We keep harping on about privacy, and then shit like this happens. There are two possible conclusions to draw. One is that the general public actually doesn’t care about privacy at all. It’s a niche concern. The other is that the general public cares but is completely and utterly clueless about how to defend themselves, to the point that an app can literally say “give us your name and face and we can do whatever we w…

It's because there's not been a lot of scary things happening yet. Or if they have, it's been on individuals - like someone seeing themselves on a billboard or advert. But because the datasets are so massive, people are reduced to statistics which is a lot less scary.

Of course, if you look at history that can change overnight. Or actually it won't, it's more likely a "boiling frog" kinda thing where nobody's aware of anything bad happening until it's too late.

Re: FaceApp Now Owns Access to More Than 150M People's Faces and Names

#38

Post by NikolaNovak »

Rannath wrote: post #6

Aren't contracts with unlimited time periods non-binding? I was under the impression that any contract that said perpetual anything could be trivially disregarded. Or is that a regional thing?

I am not a lawyer, but dear gawd, how would that even work? I can imagine a huge number of domains where a time limit would make interaction unfeasible.

- I am buying my house for perpetuity, not leasing it for a limited period

- I'm a photographer, you're a model, I want a model release that's unlimited or it's not worth my time and risk to deal with you (this is usually framed as "rights" or "license", but signed in form of a "contract", similar to what the FaceApp would likely do?)

Re: FaceApp Now Owns Access to More Than 150M People's Faces and Names

#39

Post by sailingparrot »

mikeash wrote: post #32
sailingparrot wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Option 3: No one read the terms of services, and 99% of the app users are not even aware of that, didn't even give it a passing thought.

That falls under the second option. Being capable of defending your privacy means understanding that you shouldn’t willingly give your personal info to random apps.

They didn't 'willingly' give anything.

Like any app, you launch it and you accept the EULA. Then it asks you for permission to use your camera and for your contacts: it makes sense you want to take selfies and share them.

That's it, now all your data belong to them. There is no functional difference between an app that will siphon all your private data and an app that won't.

for the vast majority of users, at no point did they stop and ponder whether they were ok giving up their 'face' for a filter app.

The only way to know would be to read the terms, and even then if you are not a lawyer you won't see the traps (e.g. understanding that "User Content" actually refers to your face).

Re: FaceApp Now Owns Access to More Than 150M People's Faces and Names

#40

Post by jmkni »

marpstar wrote: post #35
hi5eyes wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the only real difference between snap and faceapp is the media gave faceapp the russian tie in so now they're using it as that combined with federal investigation titles [1] snap is a scarier but most people dont care since its so ingrained into their lives... for whatever reason I never understood.. but my friends used love it even while I warned them how stupid it was so use snap in the first place if you cared abo…

On top of that, FaceApp doesn't request Geolocation permissions while Snap integrates a map of friends in the app itself.

The app doesn't request Geolocation data, but might the geographic info still be in the EXIF data in the photo that gets uploaded?
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