The past few years have been all about stupid trends and viral apps, so it wasn’t a surprise when a brand new viral trend erupted this month.

Recently, almost everyone’s feed was flooded with pictures of old faces with a watermark on the corner that read ‘FaceApp.’ The trend quickly caught on and almost everyone downloaded the app.

FaceApp’s filters allow a user to turn them into the “older version” of themselves. It uses Artificial Intelligence to add filters on the user’s picture which shows what they would look when they’re older. It is also used for adding smiles and beards to your selfies as well as change hairstyles on any picture. But the main filter to go viral was the “old filter” which turns your selfies into the future older version of yourself. 

Given the sudden rise in the popularity of the app, a few questions were raised. The app was developed by a Russian start-up in 2017. Reports surfaced online claiming that the user’s data is being sent to Russian servers and how they can easily access the user’s phone gallery and data. 

FaceApp’s terms and conditions ask for ‘perpetual’, ‘irrevocable’, ‘royalty-free’ and ‘worldwide license’ to use the user’s content, which means that any picture uploaded by the user can be used for promotional and commercial use anywhere in the world.

Even though the app has come under the scanner of many, FaceApp has denied all of these claims. They responded by saying that it doesn’t upload photos from the user’s phone gallery to their servers and even denied sharing user data with Russia. 

Granted, it does look like a lot of fun, but the terms and conditions of the app seem very sketchy. Even though these reports might not be completely true, it’s always better to be safe than sorry, right?