Celebs
FaceApp: Celebs fall in love with AgeChallenge
FaceApp the phone application that generates highly realistic transformations of faces in photographs has gone viral and not a single one person wants to be left out of the challenge it has created.
The mobile app gives users the chance to see what they would look like younger, older, with a beard, sitch hairstyles and even flip genders (available on premium feature).
A face people are curious to see how they look when in their old age. This has sent all social media platforms buzzing as people want to find out how magnificent their changes will be.
Locally celebrities like Asamoah Gyan, Eddie Watson, Kwaku Manu, D Black and many others have taken to their social media to share photos many deem funny.
Internationally, Boyband, Jonas brothers, Terry Cruise, Dwayne Wade and superheroes in the Avengers have also shared interesting photos of their old age looks.
Bleacher Report Football (B/R Football) has also not spared athletes from the challenge.
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However, the app developed by Russian company, Wireless Lab, has come under criticisms as some people fear the user policy will give the app access to their privacy.
Although using the app has been fun for many, some users complained the iOS version of the app appears to be overriding settings if a user had denied access to their camera roll, after people reported they could still select and upload a photo — i.e. despite the app not having permission to access their photos.
In a statement, FaceApp claimed it only uploads photos users have specifically selected for editing.
According to TechCrunch, security tests have also not found evidence the app uploads a user’s entire camera roll.
FaceApp goes on to specify that it gets rid of photos in the cloud after storing (not always) for a short period for “performance and traffic” — such as to make sure that a user doesn’t repeatedly upload the same photo to carry out another edit.
“Most images are deleted from our servers within 48 hours from the upload date,” it adds.
Amongst the complaints, were worries users data were being transferred to Russia because its research and development team is based there.
However, in the statement, FaceApp claims there is no data transfer as storage and cloud processing are being performed using AWS and Google Cloud (Founder Yaroslav Goncharov confirmed to TechCrunch).
“We don’t sell or share any user data with any third parties,” it added.