'Old age' app takes over the internet

FaceApp is currently the top trending free app on the iTunes App Store


Tech Desk July 17, 2019
PHOTO: CRICKET THE VINTAGE COLLECTION 2

Photoediting app FaceApp after resolving many of its glitches has once again started trending on the internet after a two-year break. The app gives users an idea of their future self through an algorithm powered by Artificial Intelligence.

FaceApp faced problems in the beginning after its launch as one of its features led to digital blackface by transforming someone’s face to look like another ethnicity. FaceApp has since become more realistic, which is why it has gained immense popularity on social media.

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It uses Artificial Intelligence to create a sample of how a person would look like at a certain age. Though the ageing option is more popular right now, there are still other options to choose from: infusing a smile, changing hair colours and genders.

PHOTO: CRICKET THE VINTAGE COLLECTION 2

Celebrities have been posting 'old age' examples of what they would look like using FaceApp. They included comedian Kevin Hart, ex Miami Heat player Dwayne Wade and world-famous chef Gordon Ramsay.

There have been certain privacy concerns regarding the app. FaceApp uploads your photo to the cloud for processing instead of on-device processing like Apple’s first party app does.

They should alert the user that the photo is processed in the cloud.

Given how many screenshots people take of sensitive information like banking and whatnot, photo access is a bigger security risk than ever these days. With access to the optical character recognition tech that could automatically turn up a huge amount of info way beyond ‘photos of people’, there are certain privacy warnings here.

Meanwhile, FaceApp is currently the top trending free app on the iTunes App Store.

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This article originally appeared on Tech Crunch.


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