What do companies do with your face?
Why people are worried about FaceApp for the wrong reasons.
Beyond Today · BBC Radio 4
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Show Notes
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve probably used Faceapp to see how you’ll look when you’re older.
But in the days after Faceapp blew up, a conspiracy theory spread across the internet. People were worried that Wireless Lab - the app’s maker - was feeding data to the Russian government.
This led to the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer calling for an investigation into FaceApp. In a letter posted on Twitter, Mr Schumer called it "deeply troubling" that personal data of US citizens could go to a "hostile foreign power".
In this episode we speak to the BBC’s Russia and disinformation specialist Olga Robinson about why worrying about Faceapp’s Russian roots misses the point. Maryam Ahmed - a BBC expert in Machine intelligence – answers the questions the Faceapp story throws up and explains why any private company would want pictures of our face in the first place.
Producers: Duncan Barber and Lucy Hancock. Mixed by Nicolas Raufast. Editor: Philly Beaumont.