After facing significant backlash for questionable privacy terms that gave it near-total control over your face photos, FaceApp’s creator is now saying the company will change its problematic terms of service. 

The app has been around since 2017, but its old-age filter exploded social media recently — until people started looking into the app’s terms of service that allows the Russia-based developer to use your face photos for commercial purposes. 

FaceApp said it could delete your data upon request, but the app’s creator and CEO, Yaroslav Goncharov, told Forbes that there would be more transparency with the implementation of an updated privacy policy. 

“It’s my personal top priority to fix our privacy policy and terms of use,” he said, telling Forbes that he plans to draft new policies in the next month. 

The current terms of service states that, “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.” 

Goncharov said that the new terms of services and privacy policies would remove any language about the company’s rights to people’s images. He said that he initially made the terms broad because he wanted to turn FaceApp into a “social network for faces.” 

“To do this kind of product, our privacy policy had to be very similar to what Instagram had. Our current privacy policy is very similar to what Instagram has, but nobody blames Instagram, because it’s Instagram,” he said. 

Goncharov also reiterated to Forbes that the company typically deletes user photos within 48 hours and doesn’t share user data with third parties.

Some changes have already been made to the app. Now when you download it, a notification pops up saying that each photo you input for editing will be uploaded to the app’s servers for image processing and face transformation, giving users more transparency into how their photos are being used.

Digital Trends reached out to FaceApp to get more details on the updated terms of service and privacy policy changes, but have yet to get a response. 

Related Posts

OnePlus 15T leak spills details on a curious camera situation

According to the Chinese tipster Digital Chat Station (via Weibo), a "small-screen phone powered by the Snapdragon 8E5 is ready," translated from simplified Chinese. This phone, believed to be the OnePlus 15T, could feature a dual-camera setup "with a 50MP main sensor and a 50MP telephoto lens."

WhatsApp has begun testing a long-overdue group chat feature

The Meta-owned messaging platform is testing a new feature called "group chat history sharing" (via a WABetaInfo report). As the name suggests, the feature lets a WhatsApp user (likely the admin) share the chat history (up to 100 messages sent within 14 days) with someone while adding them to a group.

Google Photos introduces a fun new way to turn yourself into a meme

According to a recent post on Google's support forums, Me Meme is a generative AI feature that lets you star in trending memes using a template and a photo of yourself. It's rolling out in Google Photos for Android in the US, and you can try it out by tapping the "Create" button and selecting the new "Me meme" option.