FaceApp craze is making everyone greyer — but is it safe to use?

The app makes you look like an old person and everyone’s doing it. But privacy concerns are swirling about the Russian-made app and what information it captures.

You may have noticed celebrities and your mates looking a little worse for wear on social media over the last day or so.

The #FaceAppChallenge, using smartphone application FaceApp, has taken off among celebrities, sports stars and, well, pretty much everyone.

Using artificial intelligence to make users look younger or older, the app has blown up social media, with most people choosing to age themselves — or others — with hilarious results.

While the results are breathtaking, FaceApp is owned by Russian company Wireless Lab, sparking concerns over privacy issues.

It also comes as the Democratic National Committee warned 2020 presidential candidates not to use the app, CNN reports.

Me hosting #MasterChef Season 50......#faceapp pic.twitter.com/uKnfxUpC1D

— Gordon Ramsay (@GordonRamsay) July 16, 2019

People have raised fears that on iPhones, FaceApp would be able to see and upload all your photos, including screenshots with sensitive financial or health information or photos of kids with the names of their schools in the background.

That’s not actually true, but the scuttle serves as a good reminder to think twice before downloading new apps.

Even large, mainstream apps routinely collect user data.

But many trendy apps are guilty of mining user data as a primary purpose.

Some personality quizzes on Facebook and similar services collect user information as a business, opening people up to breaches such as in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

As for FaceApp, the app grabs a photo only if you specifically select it to see your face change, security researcher and Guardian Firewall CEO Will Strafach said.

... and we clearly have too much time on our hands 😂 pic.twitter.com/QPLS65g09t

— AFL (@AFL) July 17, 2019

WHAT CAUSED THE CONFUSION

The confusion comes from an iPhone feature that shows your photo library within the app.

It is an Apple feature that lets you select a specific photo, but doesn’t give the app full access to the library, even though it may appear that way.

You have the option of granting access to your entire photo library, but even then, there is no evidence the app is uploading anything other than the photo selected.

“I’m always looking for privacy concerns,” said Strafach, who used a network analyser tool to track what was happening. “When it’s not happening, it’s not happening.” There’s a version of FaceApp for Android, but those phones don’t tap photo libraries the same way.

That’s not to say the app isn’t free of problems, Strafach said.

Among other things, photos get sent to the cloud for processing in both the iPhone and Android versions, exposing them to hacking and other problems.

FaceApp does not explicitly tell users that the photos are being sent to the cloud. Some apps try to limit exposure by doing the processing on the devices themselves, not in the cloud.

FaceApp’s privacy policy also says it is using data from the app to serve targeted ads and to develop new products and features.

It says it does not sell data to third party apps, but lists many exceptions including one that allows it to share data after removing information that identifies users.

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Wireless Lab told technology news site TechCrunch that it may store users’ photos in the cloud, but “most” are deleted after 48 hours. It said no user data is transferred to Russia.

The company told TechCrunch users can request to have their data deleted.

Even with those admissions, Strafach urged people to resist the pull of the app. He said the app should have been upfront and told users it was processing photos in the cloud rather than on phones.

“Bottom line is they were handling sensitive data and they handled it cavalierly and that’s just not cool,” he said.

CELEBS CAN’T RESIST VIRAL APP

AFL legend Dane Swan posted an older looking version of himself on holiday in Mykonos.

Wimbledon winner Dylan Alcott reckons he is looking worse for wear after celebrating his success too hard.

The fight for ratings in the all-important drive slot looks like it’s impacting radio funnyman Tommy Little.

Been a fairly large weekend post @Wimbledon #Wimbledon #FaceApp pic.twitter.com/lmj77h57eh

— Dylan Alcott (@DylanAlcott) July 17, 2019

Everyone’s favourite Australian Idol contestant Shannon “Nollsie” Noll reckons being a father hasn’t aged him one bit.

We’d have to disagree — sorry, cobber.

Christian Bale dropped almost 30kg for his role in the Machinist, but Kevin Hart has gone to new lengths for his new movie, Fatherhood, ageing himself almost 30-years.

— With AP