FaceApp : Another viral application; FaceApp has stepped up to the occasion to give people an idea about how they would look at a certain age. It is a simple photo editing application but has age filters built into it. The old-age filter is in trend and everyone starting from children and teenagers to adults and elders are in awe of the filter.
The application literally rose to fame overnight with over a million downloads on the Google Play Store. The app is available for download on both Android and IOS devices but when you actually go ahead and download the app, an error message pops up. It is apparent that only Indian users are facing this problem. People took to Twitter to highlight the issue after which it was cleared that only Indian users were facing the problem.
FaceApp uses artificial intelligence capabilities to transform your face. The old-age filter is the most notable filter in the app. The app clinched the number one spot on both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Almost everyone has posted their old-age photo on social media. The trend reminds us of the Prisma photo app which became viral in a similar fashion exactly three years ago.
Aside from the old-age filter, other notable filters within the app can make you look younger and convert a bland photo into a smiling one. For those who want to test a hairstyle before actually getting it can also use this app. FaceApp has had its share of controversies and FBI is on its back suspecting a breach of privacy of people and data theft.
One of the terms and conditions of the app states that the user allows modification and publication of data without the user’s consent. Most of the users simply agree to the terms and conditions without reading it but in this case, you would not want to accept their terms and conditions. However, such language is used in the past by many online services but it should always be kept in mind that once the company has your data, they might transfer it to a third party to generate revenue.
FaceApp is not a new application. It came into existence 2 – 3 years ago and wanted people to change their ethnicity in order to use the application. This raised some red flags and quickly turned into a controversy. Some of the filters in the app in 2017 were forcefully removed because they considered racist.
It seems that FaceApp has blocked Indian users from using the app. There is still no statement from the owners of the application. It will be interesting to see how things shape up from here.
