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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

#51

Post by godelski »

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.

Option 4: what can you do with my face and name? That's just like you taking a picture of me in public.

I know plenty of people that think this way.

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

#52

Post by etxm »

tictoc wrote: post #33
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.

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?

It sounds like you got a product idea.

I know my uncle Doug would pay for it.

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

#53

Post by DINKDINK »

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?

>contracts with unlimited time periods non-binding?

I've noticed in countries with Natural Rights frame works for their law that typically contracts that commit /an individual/ to work when it's not "bonded" in some way are interpreted as slavery and nullified.

e.g. If I agree to get paid $100k lump-sum today to work for you for 10 years at no more compensation, and at year 2 I decide to renege on the contract, no Natural-Rights framework court is going to enforce that.

But if I sell my house to you (relinquishing ownership to you for an "unlimited time period") and I try to renege on the sale, it is going to be enforced.

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

#54

Post by mikeash »

sailingparrot wrote: post #39
mikeash wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 poin…

This still lines up exactly with what I’m saying. Defending your privacy means you need to stop and ponder these things. People don’t know that they need to do this.

You don’t need to read the terms. You “just” need to assume nefarious intent unless demonstrated otherwise.

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

#55

Post by bengotow »

Raphmedia wrote: post #43

Every one I know is already using either Facebook Messenger (which has the same face scanning features) and/or Snapchat (which also has this feature). This is not new. I've been using FaceApp since its release. There are a lot of other similar apps that I've used in the past. Especially makeup simulator apps. BeautyPlus, YouCal, InstaBeauty, BeautyCam, Facetune, Photo Plastic, Visage Lab, etc.

I think FaceApp in particular strikes a chord in the United States because it's owned by a Russian Company. Name + faces (and therefore age and gender and race) + Location is the kind of data that enabled a lot of granular facebook ad targeting in 2016.

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

#56

Post by 2_listerine_pls »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #47
2_listerine_pls wrote: post #21

Facebook owns access to your face, body, name, friends, family, trips, events, conversations, location, groups, interests, political orientation, estimated IQ, payments, workplace, other sites you visit, etc... Yet, Forbes & others talk about FaceApp.

> Yet, Forbes chooses to talk about FaceApp. https://www.forbes.com/search/?q=facebook

Obviously meant that there are many other elephants in the room and but they decided to promote an alarming article about this new app that records your photos!!! Is it so difficult for You to understand?

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

#57

Post by MisterTea »

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.

I think the problem is these systems are much more complex than the people realize. Technically minded people like those of us here understand the implications but they might not. That or they have too much trust in an increasingly untrustworthy world. It's just naivety really.

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

#58

Post by bengotow »

jmkni wrote: post #40
marpstar wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Yep this is correct, location history can be scraped from the EXIF data in the photos in your camera roll.

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

#59

Post by magashna »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #37
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 o…

No need to pay someone for their likeness when you can generate the average face of your targeted market

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

#60

Post by snarf21 »

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…

Or option 3. They care about privacy but only when terrible thing X happens.

They post their name and picture to Instagram 12 times a day. Most people have public profiles so there is no new risk. Of course by the time every street corner has facial recognition running "for our safety", it will be too late.

Even as someone who knows the risks, this doesn't scare me as much as DNA testing. Even worse is that if any of my relatives do it, I'm just as screwed. There is also the "let's all install hackable video cameras on our front doors" problem. Clever fear mongering to prevent a random package being stolen that is already insured and will be resent automatically. Instead we paid to create our own surveillance state.

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