FaceApp Is Not A Russian Plot
So Chuckie Schumer has asked for a probe into FaceApp. Sigh...
I'm actually laughing as I write this because I called it. Literally called it.
FaceApp is not stealing your photos and sending them to Russia. It doesn't ask for any other permissions than any other app that does anything with your photos and/or shares them on social media--that's the only way for something like that to work. (Don't believe me? Look at the terms for every other app you're using.)
The company has been around for a while. FaceApp has been around for a while. The only photos the app actually accesses are the ones you select and it gets uploaded to the cloud.
The user who started this whole allegation on Twitter (that the app was uploading all their photos to their servers--deleted those tweets when he realized he was WRONG).
A couple of days ago I noticed the first "security concerns news story" from big media. All the stories were structured and written the same--they might as well have been the same piece. Start out by mentioning the terms and conditions (don't mention that they're standard for this sort of thing). Then some security expert (always the head of a big company and always a paid talking head on the news or a corporate speaker) talks about what COULD be done--structured in a way it was easy to miss the could-be's and potentially's.
Twitter is literally full of other tech experts screwing around with the app (some examples here and here and here), finding it does exactly what it says, and all the could be allegations don't actually work.
This struck me as purposeful.
I messaged a buddy and said as much, "I think these stories presage some other move to re-spark the bullshit Russian hackers stealing elections narrative."
And now what do we have? Schumer calling from a probe. Why? I'm sticking to my guns--the Democrats will use ever changing debate requirements to shape their field, chose who they want at the convention with their super-delegates, then go into blue-no-matter-who-mode. And when their unlikable centrist stooge with a shitty voting record with a political career shaped by corporate cash looses and Trump gets a second term, they'll bring this back-- FaceApp and the Russians stole the election for Trump.
