Face App: recipe for ID theft

Recently, governments in the US and Europe have moved toward greater levels of regulation on companies like Facebook, which have often treated users' data in a cavalier way.

Facebook has a great many faults. I have advocated publicly that individuals delete their Facebook accounts. Yet Facebook's major headquarters at least operate within systems that encourage official scrutiny and regulatory action against privacy infringements.

The recent $5 billion settlement agreed between Facebook and the US Federal Trade Commission, serves as an example of punishment for errant behaviour.

Software companies with global aspirations are not necessarily subject to that level of scrutiny in the wild west that is the Russian corporate scene.

Face App seems like innocent fun, but its terms of use raise the worrying possibility of identity theft.

Stealing an identity is relatively simple these days. It can, said one study, be accomplished for about the price of a can of Coke.

A key feature of the process is the collection of photos and names of real people, which are then utilised to produce new backstories and identities.

These are sold to people who, for whatever nefarious reasons, don't want to operate publicly under their given names, or with their personal histories attached.

Of course, supplying images to any photo-sharing site opens up the possibility of identity theft. This ought to concern every parent who posts photos of children or teens to Instagram and the like.

Face App, however, takes this to a new level because of its insistence that it can use images anywhere and at any time, even on media not yet devised.

Rapidly emerging AI-driven technologies flag all kinds of potential problems for privacy and personal security. Regulators struggle to keep up with the technology and its potential for misuse and abuse.

In light of all of this, Face App represents a major case for adopting the principle of caveat emptor.