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Loss of data when using NewProfilePic application?-Information Technology

Surely all of us want to have an attractive Facebook, TikTok … profile picture, but this can put you at risk of privacy.

Recently, on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter… and other social networking platforms, there have been many eye-catching avatars created with the NewProfilePic application.

What is NewProfilePic?

NewProfilePic is a free application on Google Play and App Store that allows users to turn ordinary photos into animated images, using artificial intelligence.

The Daily Mail (UK) quoted a security expert, saying: “NewProfilePic is capable of storing images of people’s faces in high resolution, but how will this data be used when almost unheard of app?”.

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As the app became popular on social media, people started learning about the company’s history. The domain name NewProfilePic was originally registered in Moscow (Russia), and this caused suspicion among some users of the application.

“We are a company in the Virgin Islands (British), with development offices in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus,” a representative of PhotoLab, the company behind the NewProfilePic application, told CNET.

“All user photos are stored and processed on Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure servers, located outside Russia. The domain is registered in Moscow but this is the former address of the founder of the company, he does not live in Russia now.”

In an Instagram post, the company’s founder Victor Sazhin said he was born in Moscow and moved to Ukraine at an early age. “We understand that due to the events in Ukraine, any connection with Russia could raise suspicion.”

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According to Urban-Legends, there is no evidence that the NewProfilePic application compromised user data.

Security researcher Bob Sullivan thinks that the situation of NewProfilePic is identical to that of FaceApp more than 3 years ago.

In 2019, the FaceApp application became famous after being used by many actors to turn from old to young, boy to girl… and vice versa. Because it is based in Russia, the application has been investigated by the FBI because of concerns about collecting user information.

A spokesperson for PhotoLab said, “We do not plan to be affiliated with any government organization of any country.”

In the policy section of NewProfilePic, there is a paragraph that says “Images will be sent to the server over an SSL encrypted connection to protect privacy and integrity.

For unregistered users, NewProfilePic will not share their results, original photos and results will be automatically deleted from the server 2 weeks after last interaction. Conversely, for registered users, the images will be stored on the server, unless the user manually deletes the images or requests deletion by contacting the company’s support team.

“Even so, even if a company has never had a Moscow address, you should think twice before agreeing to hand over personal photos to an app you don’t know,” said Sullivan.

When you share secure data like faces with such an app, you have no way of knowing where that data is going. If you really want an interesting self-portrait, hire local artists.

According to Tieu Minh (Ho Chi Minh City Law)

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