GDPR: we like to think that we pay attention to it... but lets face it, it's also blended into the wallpaper a bit recently. That's not surprising when most of us now click 'agree' several times on a daily basis without really thinking about it, and document most aspects of our lives on Facebook and Instagram. I mean: if it's mostly pictures of your food, selfies and the occasional artisan coffee what can really be the harm?
However following the viral success of the latest internet fad, the #faceappchallenge, internet users have issued warnings about the terms and conditions of FaceApp, specifically because it seems like the app's terms and conditions allow for the use of it's user's images in misleading ways.
If you haven't been in the thick of the Twittersphere recently, chances are that at this point you might be asking the question 'what is FaceApp anyway?' the app itself has actually been around for about two years, but it had a recent surge in popularity with updated features that allow you to use artificial intelligence to change your photos (remember that Snapchat feature which could gender-swap and turn you into a baby which momentarily revived it's popularity a couple of months ago?). With the help of FaceApp's features you can transform the subject of the uploaded image to look older, younger or swap genders.
The FaceApp fad might have a shorter shelf life than sushi, but needless to say that at the moment it's providing hours of midweek entertainment. Who doesn't want to see what Maura from Love Island will look like when she's 80 or flood your favourite Whatsapp groups with pictures of your friends as pensioners?
Even celebrities have jumped on board with the challenge (including Drake and the Jonas brothers). However several internet users have now now pointed out that the terms and conditions of FaceApp have some worrying legal loopholes: most concerningly, that FaceApp can use your image publicly if it wants to.
The Independent reported today that the terms and conditions of the app state: “You grant FaceApp a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your User Content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your User Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed, without compensation to you,”
Twitter user Elizabeth Potts Weinstein wrote: 'If you use #FaceApp you are giving them a license to use your photos, your name, your username, and your likeness for any purpose including commercial purposes (like on a billboard or internet ad)' - while other users are raising concerns that not much is known about the app or it's developers, and that it was originally developed in Russia.
A separate concern that FaceApp uploads your camera roll in the background while you're searching for a picture to use has been dismissed (with the amount of us that screenshot banking information and private Whatsapp conversations: just imagine what a disaster that would be...).
However, Techcrunch reported yesterday that while FaceApp might only require the selection of one photo to use its features (which is enabled by Apple even if your 'allow photo access' option for the app is set to 'never'), it then uploads this image to the cloud for processing rather than processing within the app. The reason for FaceApp making the photo you upload available on the cloud - and potentially for third party use - according to tech crunch is 'not made clear to the user.'
So while we may be getting more and more blinkered to GDPR issues and dying to see a picture of your best friend or Ovie Soko as a silver fox (don't pretend you're not), perhaps this is one trend that you're better off avoiding for now.