FaceApp claims 'storage encryption' out of nowhere, says it deletes 'all' photos from servers within 48 hours

FaceApp - AI-powered face-morphing app - has unexpectedly claimed storage encryption for photos. FaceApp support team told Republic World that photos shared with servers are anonymous and stored encrypted. However, we were unable to find a mention of any form of encryption in FaceApp's privacy policy:

"The images shared with the servers are totally anonymous and stored encrypted. We cannot identify you, your device or any other data based on the pictures," said FaceApp support.

FaceApp also said it deletes 'all' photos are from its servers within 48 hours after editing. But earlier, FaceApp founder Yaroslav Goncharov had said they delete 'most' photos from servers within 48 hours after editing.

But in a new statement over email, FaceApp clarified it removes 'all' photos from servers.

"All pictures are automatically deleted within the next 48 hours after they were edited in our app. We cannot and we do not store pictures that our users upload."

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Addressing privacy concerns about photos being processed locally on your device and stored in cloud servers, FaceApp support had this to say:

"AI technology we use in our filters requires advanced calculations on a server, which makes impossible to edit a picture on a smartphone. The picture that wasn't edited with our filters won't be sent to the servers and will remain on your device only."

FaceApp also clarified it doesn't have access to any additional data such as email address, device model, Apple ID or iCloud or Google accounts.

"We cannot identify you, your device or any other data based on the pictures. We do not use them in advertising nor in any other public cases. No one sees these pictures. They are processed automatically by computers only."

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Recently, US Senate Chuck Schumer called for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to "look into the national security & privacy risks" connected to FaceApp after it went viral.

In his previous statement, Goncharov had maintained FaceApp neither sell any data to third parties and nor transfer to Russia.

"We don't sell or share any user data with any third parties. Even though the core R&D team is located in Russia, the user data is not transferred to Russia."