The amusing photo filter, FaceApp, which uses artificial intelligence to digitally age your face, has gone viral once again recently, with millions of altered photos shared on social media.
Even though the latest spurt of shares is a new development, which can be attributed, at least partially, to the #FaceAppChallenge, the company behind the product has been around since 2017.
The filters were developed at Wireless Lab, a Russian company. Shortly after they became popular, questions arose about privacy issues related to the app. And the concerns about the Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election did not make it easier for the developers to explain how it works.
“Even though the core R&D team is located in Russia, the user data is not transferred to Russia,” the company assured in a message to Tech Crunch on Wednesday.
The fact that a company is based in Russia does not automatically make it an agent of the Kremlin, although government-linked businesses are based in the country.
To find out more about the Wireless Lab founder and privacy questions related to FaceApp, read the full article on our sister website The Globe Post.