The Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States states that it is examining possible counter-espionage threats in connection with the popular online application #Faceapp, which is based in Russia. The application first appeared in 2017 in January and quickly became popular with smartphone users worldwide. It allows users to upload a photo of their face and then modify it with the help of artificial intelligence software. The software can modify the user's photograph to make it younger or older or make it look like the opposite sex. The result is incredibly realistic.
St. Petersburgh-based company Wireless Lab says user photos are uploaded to cloud servers located in New Zealand, Australia and Singapore. They are then deleted within two days from the moment they are uploaded by users, without ever being transferred to servers located in Russian territory. But the FBI doesn't seem to believe these assurances. In a letter sent late last month to US Senate minority forces leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), the Bureau said it was looking into the FaceApp application as a possible means of counterintelligence.
In the letter, released Monday, Jill Tyson, deputy director of the FBI's Bureau of Congressional Affairs, says the Russia-based Wireless Lab has created a number of counterintelligence problems. These refer to the types of data Wireless Lab collects about its customers and the privacy policies that apply to Russian Internet companies. According to Tyson, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has the right to "remotely access all communications and servers on Russian networks without making an official and public request" to network providers. He added that if the FBI discovered that FaceApp was involved in activities intended to interfere with the upcoming elections in the United States, the Bureau would investigate the matter further and eventually involve the Foreign Influence Task Force, a body headed by the FBI which was established after the 2016 US presidential election.
The FBI letter was written in response to a previous letter sent to the Bureau by Senator Schumer in July, which expressed concern about the potential threats posed by FaceApp to the privacy of American Internet users and the security of nations in their together.
