BC Faculty Discloses Concerns About New FaceApp Trend

Baker College Cyber Defense and Computer Science Director Doug Witten.

You've seen it all over your social channels- family, friends and celebrities posting selfies using the new FaceApp filter to appear older or to change their likeness in other ways.

Baker College Cyber Defense and Computer Science Director Doug Witten reminds users that there's a price to pay when using apps, usually in the form of an information trade-off.  

Users are granting the Russian-owned app access to their name, username, likeness and location, as the app uses geospatial information.

Witten, a certified ethical hacker, warns that sharing certain kinds of information could lead to future hacking.

"The potential is there. You have given them access to your information. And you know, as we've talked in the past, what a hacker wants is your information," Witten said. "The fear-mongering comes from...it's from Russia. Would it have been the same outcry if it was developed at MIT? I don't know."

Read the story at ABC12