A new app that tells you what you’ll look like when you age has been sweeping the internet for its accurate (and often hilarious) facial reconstructions.
FaceApp lets users pick a photo from their gallery and can make them look decades older in a matter of minutes – talk about time catching up with you. The app also lets users see what they would look like if they were a few years younger, or a different gender.
The app, which launched in 2017, uses artificial intelligence to augment users’ facial expressions and make them look older or younger, or change their gender.
It has gone viral again in the last few days, with thousands of people posting “aged” selfies of themselves on social media, using the hashtag #FaceAppChallenge.
The challenge has proved so popular that celebrities broadcasters etc. are getting involved.
However, some online privacy experts have raised concerns that the app, which is developed by Russian company Wireless Lab, could be accessing and storing users’ images without their permission.
The company’s terms and conditions state that, by using the app, users agree to allow FaceApp to use, modify, adapt and publish any images that they upload.
FaceApp is also allowed to use your name, username or any likeness provided in any media format it likes without compensation, meaning you will not be paid for it, or have any ability to take it down or complain about it.
FaceApp uploads your photo to the cloud for processing, rather than carry out on-device processing like many apps do. After doing so, it retains the image long after you’ve deleted the app.
