SALT LAKE CITY — The Democratic National Committee sent a security alert to all 2020 presidential campaigns telling them not to use FaceApp, which has roots in Russia, according to CNN.
- “This app allows users to perform different transformations on photos of people, such as aging the person in the picture. Unfortunately, this novelty is not without risk: FaceApp was developed by Russians,” reads the alert, which was sent by Bob Lord, the DNC’s chief security officer.
What’s going on: As I wrote for the Deseret News, the app FaceApp went viral this week as celebrities, athletes and normal people (like this reporter) took photos of themselves and used an age filter to see what they’d look like in 50 years. Security experts weighed in, expressing concerns about the app’s privacy policy absorbing too much user data. And it doesn’t help, experts said, that the app has Russian roots.
Yes, but: The FaceApp makers told TechCrunch, “Even though the core R&D team is located in Russia, the user data is not transferred to Russia.”
Still: Lord also stated that the DNC had “significant concerns about the app (as do other security experts) having access to your photos, or even simply uploading a selfie.”
- “It’s not clear at this point what the privacy risks are, but what is clear is that the benefits of avoiding the app outweigh the risks,” Lord continued, per CNN.
- “If you or any of your staff have already used the app, we recommend that they delete the app immediately.”
Flashback: In 2016, Russians reportedly hacked the DNC and Democratic campaigns, according to The Washington Post. Since that time, the DNC has looked to stop a repeat by investing in better security technology.