Russian ‘Silicon Valley’ home to FaceApp ‘may be spying on the west’, FBI warns
FACEAPP is based at an "innovation centre" described as Russia's Silicon Valley, which the FBI has warned could be part of a giant plot to spy on the west.
The hugely popular photo-editing app has gone viral this week thanks to a new selfie-tweaking feature that makes you look elderly.
App-loving Brits and celebs alike have all been flooding social media with their "old age" selfies.
But there are growing concerns over privacy and security as more information about the app emerges.
Yesterday, The Sun detailed how FaceApp could let strangers have complete control over your photos forever.
And now we can reveal the app's links to a controversial Russian tech hub under FBI scrutiny.
FaceApp's terms and conditions list the creators of the app as Wireless Lab OOO – based in St Petersburg, Russia.
However, the company is also known as Vayrelez Lab in Russia, and has actually been based in Moscow since 2018.
This new FaceApp HQ is at the Skolkovo Innovation Centre – a major tech start-up hub in the Russian capital.
The area is managed by the Skolkovo Foundation, a non-profit founded in 2010 by then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to boost the local tech industry.
But the Foundation has proved controversial, with the FBI highlighting spying fears, links to the Russian military, and a "history of corruption".
In 2014, the FBI reported a sudden rise in Russian tech firms "increasing their footprint in Silicon Valley".
And they linked this increase to the Skolkovo Foundation – kickstarting an investigation.
"The Foundation may be a means for the Russian government to access our nation's sensitive or classified research, development facilities and dual-use technologies with military and commercial applications," Lucia Ziobro, a special agent at the FBI, explained in 2014.
In a warning note, Ziobro alleged that the Foundation – whose tech hub FaceApp now calls home – signed an agreement with Russian vehicle manufacturer Ojsc Kamaz in late 2013.
"Kamaz is also a Russian defence contractor who supplies the Russian military with armed and armoured vehicles, and was scheduled to produce more than 100 all-terrain transport to the Russian strategic missile troops last year," she said.
"The agreement enabled Kamaz to establish a research and development facility in the Skolkovo 'innovation city' located near Moscow.
"The FBI fears that Kamaz will provide Russia's military with innovative research obtained from the Foundation's US partners."
However, it's not only military links that have left the FBI worried.
Lucia's report also claims that the Foundation has a "history of corruption".
"In November 2013, the Russian Federation’s Accounts Chamber fined over 200 managers and senior employees at the Skolkovo Foundation after an investigation of the Foundation’s use of government funds," the FBI agent said.
"The fines followed criminal charges against the Foundation’s executives for the misuse and embezzlement of $1.5 million through various schemes.
"It is the intent of the FBI for the recipients of the bulletin about Skolkovo to use the information to inform their decision making process when selecting foreign investors to protect their interests which results in safeguarding our nation’s interests."
FaceApp warning – expert reveals the risks of handing over your photos
Here's what cybersecurity expert Tim Mackey, of Synopsys, told The Sun...
- "Users of AI enabled applications like FaceApp likely aren’t aware that the AI actions taken by the app will occur on servers owned and managed by the app authors.
- "This means that whatever data provided will be available to them, for whatever use, for as long as they want.
- "It is the potential for this unbounded activity which requires users to be vigilant and ensure the privacy policy includes clear statements surrounding what data was used, where it is being processed and by what organization, and for how long the original and derivative works are retained.
- "In the case of FaceApp we also need to look at the question of image copyright and the nature of their service.
- "When a photo is taken, the photographer owns the copyright to the resulting image.
- "They can license that image and absent a license, most jurisdictions have strict guidelines on how an image can be used.
- "Additionally, if the image is of a person, the photographer should have obtained a release from all people in the image.
- "When combined the license and releases provide the legal framework for how images can be used in specific contexts.
- "While much of the coverage of FaceApp’s recent surge in popularity has centred around privacy concerns, the reality is any image uploaded to FaceApp is being transferred to a third party absent a license and modified versions of the uploaded image are then returned.
- "The FaceApp Privacy Policy doesn’t help matters as it simply states that User Content is available to any company in the group of companies FaceApp is part of – without defining this group.
- "All of this should raise alarms whenever a free service is acting on sensitive information like images – the revenue to pay for the service is coming from somewhere and it’s likely the sale of data related to what the service provides."
The FaceApp app itself was created by Yaroslav Goncharov, who previously worked at Microsoft in the USA as a developer.
He also spent time at Yandex, Russia's equivalent of Google – a company previously accused by Ukraine's security service of "funnelling its user data" to the Russian government.
And David Carroll, Associate Professor of Media Design at New York's New School University, once claimed that Yandex "has a direct line to the FSB".
The FSB is Russia's security service, responsible for counter-intelligence and surveillance.
It currently has an agreement with Yandex to unscramble encrypted messages sent online – a national surveillance measure.
Importantly however, there is zero evidence that FaceApp is misusing user data, or working with Russian security services.
Although cyber-experts have warned that the company has too much control over the images you upload, they say nothing nefarious appears to be taking place.
FaceApp maintains that images are processed on servers operated by Amazon in the USA.
But experts say privacy concerns around FaceApp are an important reminder to be vigilant about which apps you download – and the permissions you give to those apps.
It's also important to note that FaceApp was only created after the FBI warning was published, and there is nothing to suggest FaceApp is linked to any criminal activity.
"Check Point Research has analysed FaceApp, and found nothing out of the ordinary in the app," a spokesperson for cybersecurity firm Check Point Research told The Sun.
"They say that the app seems to have been developed responsibly – there are no greedy permissions, and it does what they claim it does."
In a statement given to The Sun, Wireless Lab said that it doesn't sell or share user data with any third parties.
It added: "FaceApp performs most of the photo processing in the cloud. We only upload a photo selected by a user for editing. We never transfer any other images from the phone to the cloud.
"Most images are deleted from our servers within 48 hours from the upload date.
"We accept requests from users for removing all their data from our servers. Our support team is currently overloaded, but these requests have our priority.
"Even though the core R&D team is located in Russia, the user data is not transferred to Russia."
The Sun also spoke to the Skolkovo Foundation, who confirmed that Wireless Lab is based at its Moscow HQ for "software development".
"The Skolkovo Foundation is one of the world's largest innovation ecosystems open to Russian and foreign developers, bringing together more than 2,100 startups as residents and more than 100 partner research centers, including Boeing and other large international corporations.
"Skolkovo innovation system also includes Skoltech (Skolkovo Institute of science and technology), which operates under the MIT agreement and models and has a large number of links with foreign educational institutions.
"This is an open international ecosystem for both Russian and non-Russian developers.
"And in some areas the share of non-Russian developers reaches 10-12 percent."
A spokesperson also told us that Wireless Lab did not receive any venture or grant funding from Skolkovo Ventures.
Last year, The Sun reported on how online pervs were using a computer app called "deepfakes" to create fake porn videos.
Users simply needed to feed the app hundreds of photos of a celeb's face – and an XXX film – and then sit back and wait for an algorithm to create a convincing sex tape using the images.
The Sun also revealed how sickos were using childhood photos of actress Emma Watson to create fake sex tapes.
Do you feel safe using FaceApp? Let us know in the comments!
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