Thread by @WIRED

There’s been a lot of backlash over #FaceApp—which uses AI to turn people’s faces old and gray—being run by a Russian company that sends user pics to its servers. Some of those concerns are warranted.

But trust us, there are bigger apps to worry about 1/ wired.trib.al/9q4mbmT

Contrary to a viral tweet, FaceApp doesn't upload ALL your photos to the cloud. It does upload the photo you give it—which it says it usually deletes within 48 hours. That's hard to prove, but if this unnerves you, let us introduce you to Facebook 2/ wired.trib.al/9q4mbmT

Facebook has nearly 2.5 billion monthly active users to FaceApp’s 80 million. It, too, applies facial recognition to photos that users upload to its servers. Unlike FaceApp, it was just fined $5 billion by the FTC for privacy violations 3/ wired.trib.al/AccIrZ6

Facebook also actively pushed a VPN that allowed it to track the activity of anyone who installed it not JUST within the Facebook app but anywhere on their phone. When Apple finally banned that app, Facebook snuck it in again through a backdoor 4/ wired.trib.al/LNI3pxE

There has been concern over FaceApp’s terms of service, which includes words like “perpetual” and “irrevocable” and grants them a “transferable sub-licensable license to use” your pic without compensation to you.

Facebook’s TOS isn't much different 5/ wired.trib.al/9q4mbmT

It’s not just Facebook. TikTok, for example, is based in China—a country with a damning history of facial recognition abuse. And Life360 is a family-tracking app that turns user data into revenue through ads and partnerships 6/ wired.trib.al/9q4mbmT

Should you be worried about FaceApp? Sure. But not more than any other app you let into your photo library. Or any other part of your phone.

Your data has value. Think twice about who you give it to, regardless of how silly they make you look 7/ wired.trib.al/9q4mbmT