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The FBI considers FaceApp to be a potential counterintelligence threat [pdf]

democrats.senate.gov

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Re: The FBI considers FaceApp to be a potential counterintelligence threat [pdf]

#11

Post by JoeCortopassi »

There is no threat model for an iPhone app to do nefarious things in an App Store distributed app on a non-jailbroken phone. At most, FaceApp grabs the picture you uploaded and some minor meta-data that every app using an analytics tool (read: all of them) collects.

This is political grand-standing at best, and would be a non-issue if you replaced the geographic location of the dev team with any other countries

I get it, Russia is the Big-Bad-Boogeyman right now. But if you think for a second that a real attempt at counterintelligence would publicly come from such an obvious point of interest, than I have a bridge to sell you

Re: The FBI considers FaceApp to be a potential counterintelligence threat [pdf]

#12

Post by adrr »

jjn2009 wrote: post #2

Seems like the only thing uploaded is your picture. I'd be curious to see what data it actually collects from your phone otherwise but just a photo feels pretty innocuous

Having a database of peoples picture is a huge asset for Russian intelligence. They can use facial recognition to enhance their visual surveillance efforts.

Re: The FBI considers FaceApp to be a potential counterintelligence threat [pdf]

#13

Post by rjzzleep »

threeseed wrote: post #8
jjn2009 wrote: post #2

Seems like the only thing uploaded is your picture. I'd be curious to see what data it actually collects from your phone otherwise but just a photo feels pretty innocuous

In Russia at least they could match your photo against your phone number, IMEI, IP address etc. Especially useful for capturing younger users who are more likely to be anti-Putin.

So like every other android app where you login with facebook.

Re: The FBI considers FaceApp to be a potential counterintelligence threat [pdf]

#14

Post by unityByFreedom »

rauchp wrote: post #5

Looks like the FBI designated FaceApp as a threat because of its crazy data policy and its Russian origin. Even though I think it's a really shady app, that's a pretty low bar.

It says potential threat, not threat, and according to this letter, the Russian government can access ISP data directly without request.

Re: The FBI considers FaceApp to be a potential counterintelligence threat [pdf]

#15

Post by Nextgrid »

Wissmania wrote: post #4

I wonder how many people with a profile picture of their face on their Twitter/Facebook accounts are seriously concerned about this

I wouldn't be surprised if this app collected much less data than the Facebook cancer. Facebook is not only stalking you through its main app but its other brands (Insta, WhatsApp, etc which a lot of people don't even know they're owned by FB) as well as unrelated third-party apps & websites that embed their malicious SDKs.

Facebook is an industrial-scale stalking operation. I doubt FaceApp (or frankly any government actor) could pull off something like that even if they wanted to.

Re: The FBI considers FaceApp to be a potential counterintelligence threat [pdf]

#17

Post by 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 »

JoeCortopassi wrote: post #11

There is no threat model for an iPhone app to do nefarious things in an App Store distributed app on a non-jailbroken phone. At most, FaceApp grabs the picture you uploaded and some minor meta-data that every app using an analytics tool (read: all of them) collects. This is political grand-standing at best, and would be a non-issue if you replaced the geographic location of the dev team with any other countries I get…

The photo is what's explicitly called out in the FBI complaint, with particular regard to how the photo is used and stored.

The funny thing to me is it nitpicks about the terms of service. Will a TOS prevent a foreign intelligence agency from using the data for nefarious purpose? That sounds silly.

Re: The FBI considers FaceApp to be a potential counterintelligence threat [pdf]

#19

Post by sillysaurusx »

JoeCortopassi wrote: post #11

There is no threat model for an iPhone app to do nefarious things in an App Store distributed app on a non-jailbroken phone. At most, FaceApp grabs the picture you uploaded and some minor meta-data that every app using an analytics tool (read: all of them) collects. This is political grand-standing at best, and would be a non-issue if you replaced the geographic location of the dev team with any other countries I get…

Are you sure Faceapp grabs only the photo you uploaded? “At most” implies it literally can’t grab more than that. But it seems like it can. It has access to all your photos, not just your camera.

Re: The FBI considers FaceApp to be a potential counterintelligence threat [pdf]

#20

Post by JoeCortopassi »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #19
JoeCortopassi wrote: post #11

There is no threat model for an iPhone app to do nefarious things in an App Store distributed app on a non-jailbroken phone. At most, FaceApp grabs the picture you uploaded and some minor meta-data that every app using an analytics tool (read: all of them) collects. This is political grand-standing at best, and would be a non-issue if you replaced the geographic location of the dev team with any other countries I get…

Are you sure Faceapp grabs only the photo you uploaded? “At most” implies it literally can’t grab more than that. But it seems like it can. It has access to all your photos, not just your camera.

Yes, I am sure that's all it can grab (on the iphone). Anyone telling you otherwise is fear-mongering

Edit: Obligatory “why are you booing me, I’m right?”

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