American senator calls Russian FaceApp a threat to national security

Democratic leader in the US Senate Chuck Schumer announced a potential threat to US national security that the Russian application FaceApp, which allows you to realistically change people in photographs, could pose.

“Millions of Americans have used the application. It belongs to a Russian company, and users provide the program with full and unconditional access to their photos and data,” the senator wrote on his microblog, attaching a scan of a request to the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) check the application.

BIG: Share if you used #FaceApp :

The @FBI & @FTC must look into the national security & privacy risks now

Because millions of Americans have used it

It's owned by a Russia-based company

And users are required to provide full, irrevocable access to their personal photos & data pic.twitter.com/cejLLwBQcr

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) July 18, 2019

The FaceApp application was developed by the Russian company Wireless Lab. It is based on neural networks that allow you to edit portrait photographs in various ways. In particular, the application allows you to change the hairstyle, gender, age of the person in the frame, as well as add makeup and tattoos, RIA Novosti reports. FaceApp has been experiencing a new wave of popularity in recent weeks, with users around the world posting doctored photos of themselves or others aged decades.

Schumer believes that FaceApp developers can use user photos without their consent. The senator asks the FBI to find out "how personal information uploaded by millions of Americans to FaceApp could end up in the hands of the Russian government or organizations with ties to them." FTC Schumer asked to find out whether there are guarantees that the personal data of American FaceApp users will not be compromised.