FaceApp recently introduced a new filter to their app which brings it back into the limelight and into the user's smartphones. With its increasing popularity, many have become worried about the privacy policy of the app, but the developer already responded to it. The alarming thing about this app, however, is that it will remove your rights to your photo.
FaceApp is a fun and harmless app until many users noticed that their photos were shared online by the app without their permission. The problem is, users will use any app without understanding, or most of the time, reading the privacy policy or the end user's agreement of the app. If you are the type who is very particular with your own photos and would like to keep your rights on them, then this app is not for you.
FaceApp is not a new app and has been making headlines ever since. A couple of years earlier it made headlines when it introduced its ethnicity filters. The filters allow users to transform faces from one ethnicity to another. While it seems fun, it earned a backlash and was immediately abolished.
Along with the rebirth of its popularity, it is worth understanding the way FaceApp manages the content created by the user as well as the user's right to privacy. With countless images created, it might be a good time to look at what the app is allowed to do with the user's content. Based on the terms of service of the app, users are the owners of their own content, but not really, technically.
Just like any content creation apps available today, FaceApp has inserted a section in its terms of service that states that FaceApp has the right to anything that the user creates using its service. The terms of service further state that except for the license that the user grant, he or she keeps all the right in his or her created content. It goes on stating that the app will not claim ownership to any user content using its services.
Although the statement sounds harmless and even plainly states that users retain the full rights of whatever it has created using the app. But the terms license you to grant below instantly dismisses this idea. The particular section states that by using the FaceApp services, the user agrees that the content created may be used by the app for commercial purposes.
FaceApp is a harmless app that does not steal your data, but it removes your rights to your photos. By agreeing to its terms of services or by simply using the app, you are acknowledging this and giving them the liberty to use your face for commercial purposes.
