The popular app's new filter can turn your gender into a click • Behind the application is a Russian company that has already developed similar apps in the past - but security experts warn
Photo: AP
If you haven't logged out of social networks in the last few days, it's hard to miss the fact that many of your friends at Torch have suddenly uploaded photos that simulate how they look like men or women. It's a FaceApp app that millions of people have downloaded and gone viral in the past by demonstrating how you look in your old age, and even managed to create information theft.
The FaceApp app, which you can download for Android from here, and iPhones from here, was developed by Russian company Wireless Labs. The app uses images on your smartphone and by using artificial intelligence (AI) it changes the facial features by gender, adds beard or makeup, and replaces the hair arrangement - all to match a feminine or masculine look.
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In honor of Pride Month, here I am and my male alter ego. So who do you prefer?
A post shared by Rotem Sela (@ rotemsela1) on Jun 17, 2020 at 9:23 am PDT
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Look at this picture for a moment and try to guess who it is, you know it well !! (Swipe right and find out the answer).
A post shared by Assi Azar (@assiazar) on Jun 17, 2020 at 8:54 am PDT
And with success, there is also a concern for our privacy. Last December, the FBI sent a letter to the U.S. Senate warning that the app, developed in Russia, could be a "potential danger of espionage" by the Moscow regime. The concern is that Russian developers may use the app as a back door for its users' cell phones and thus spy on the US and its citizens. To the Senate.
Remember, even when the app went live, the extensive permissions the app has requested from its users, such as access to photo albums, have turned on many warning lights. According to the FBI, Russian intelligence agencies have "broad cyber exploitation capabilities," which also include advanced Russian server activity with Internet providers worldwide.