New Phone App Could Be Gathering Your Information for Russia
A new phone app promising your free digital avatar probably is taking more from you than facial recognition. There are growing concerns in the cyber security community that Russia is behind this new technology and is stealing personal information from what could at up to millions.
The new app is very popular online, it offers the user the opportunity to turn a photograph into a beautiful, cartoon-like image of themselves.
Thousands upon thousands of people have already used the app and uploaded their photos to the servers of the New Profile Pic app.
Jake Moore of Global Cybersecurity Advisor, ESET Internet Security told the media that people should be very careful when they upload a photograph or other personal information to a brand-new website.
“This app is likely a way of capturing people’s faces in high resolution and I would question any app wanting this amount of data, especially one which is largely unheard of,” Moore said.
The company that says they are behind the app denies that they are doing anything wrong with the information that they have. It claims to be based in the British Virgin Islands but they have development and customer support offices in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
The company maintained that it was only registered in Moscow because that was the former home of the founder of the company who left Russia.
The company in question is Linerock Investments Ltd, which according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Offshore Leaks database, is registered in Moscow.
The new app uses this promotional information: “The world around us is fast-paced and always evolving. In this ever changing world, why stick to one profile pic on your social media? Let it be different, always new and… made by AI!”
The app allows the user to change her style as often as you like and challenges the user to “dare to be different” with a profile pic that reflects the current mood or state of mind of the user.
When you agree to download the app, it means that you are willing to share your location and details about the device you are using. It also means that the company has access to other photographs on your social media feeds.
The company doesn’t even hide this truth, “we collect certain personal information that you voluntarily provide to us. We collect your name, email address, user name, social network information and other information you provide when you register.”
But the company also collects data on the user from other companies and puts that in their dossier. And they collect the IP address, browser type, and settings from a computer or the device data from a mobile phone handset.
