The FaceApp episode highlights how, after more than a year of high-profile privacy scandals in the tech industry, consumers still don't adequately scrutinize services before handing over their sensitive personal data.
In early 2017, a service called FaceApp received a wave of press for using artificial intelligence to transform pictures of faces, making them look older or younger, male or female, or adding a smile to appear happier.
The fears came from stitching together scary sounding but unfortunately not uncommon wording in the app's terms of service with an unverified -- and now deleted -- claim from a developer on Twitter about the app"uploading all your photos" and the simple fact that the company is based in St. Petersburg, Russia.
"Most images are deleted from our servers within 48 hours from the upload date," the company said in a lengthy statement provided to TechCrunch addressing the privacy concerns.
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