FaceApp Terms of Service – Not a Russian Conspiracy

Last month the internet was abuzz with what the media were classifying as concerning Terms of Service for FaceApp.  However, this ‘Trumped’ up Russian conspiracy is about as spurious as claims of a stolen U.S. election.

FaceApp is predominantly a mobile app that takes a user-uploaded image and applies various processing to it – the most recently popular of which is to age the subject to show the user how they will look at an advanced age.  For those in the know, this type of image processing is nothing new.  Snapchat can do similar things, such as changing the persons gender.  So, what was so controversial about FaceApp?

FaceApp is owned and operated by a company called Wireless Lab.  Wireless Lab’s R&D team is based out of Russia.  Anyone who has followed mainstream media sources since 2016 will know that promoting the idea that Russia is conspiring against North America is the media’s current bread and butter – probably the only thing keeping them alive at this point – that, and their 65+ demographic.  Combine this paranoia with people uninformed in standard terms of service, and we have ourselves a full-blown Russian conspiracy that the media can use to get views and clicks.

The Terms of Service of FaceApp require the user to grant FaceApp a license to use the image that the user uploads for processing.  The license reads as follows:

You grant FaceApp a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your User Content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your User Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed, without compensation to you. When you post or otherwise share User Content on or through our Services, you understand that your User Content and any associated information (such as your [username], location or profile photo) will be visible to the public.

In plain language, this license grants FaceApp the right to use, in perpetuity, the image that you uploaded, for pretty much any purpose they deem fit.  Why do they need this?

The bottom line is that they probably don’t need such an expansive license, but they are well advised to have their users agree to it.  Intellectual Property, especially images of one’s likeness, are a complex web of legal issues involving usage and modification.  The company has taken this expansive license to ensure that operating their app and modification algorithms won’t get them sued by you.

This type of license is nothing new in the social media world.  Do you use Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp?  Then you’ve already agreed to similar terms.

Facebook: Specifically, when you share, post, or upload content that is covered by intellectual property rights on or in connection with our Products, you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, and worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings). This means, for example, that if you share a photo on Facebook, you give us permission to store, copy, and share it with others (again, consistent with your settings) such as service providers that support our service or other Facebook Products you use. This license will end when your content is deleted from our systems. [Pro Tip: it’s likely never deleted from their system]

Instagram: By displaying or publishing (posting) any Content on or through the Instagram Services, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content not shared publicly (private) will not be distributed outside the Instagram Services.

WhatsApp: In order to operate and provide our Services, you grant WhatsApp a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, create derivative works of, display, and perform the information (including the content) that you upload, submit, store, send, or receive on or through our Services. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating and providing our Services (such as to allow us to display your profile picture and status message, transmit your messages, store your undelivered messages on our servers for up to 30 days as we try to deliver them, and otherwise as described in our Privacy Policy).

What about Snapchat; the app that is notorious for people sending nudes to each other due to its temporary nature?

Many of our Services let you create, upload, post, send, receive, and store content. When you do that, you retain whatever ownership rights in that content you had to begin with. But you grant us a license to use that content. How broad that license is depends on which Services you use and the Settings you have selected.

We call Story submissions that are set to be viewable by Everyone as well as content you submit to crowd-sourced Services, including Our Story, Public Content. For all content you submit to the Services other than Public Content, you grant Snap Inc. and our affiliates a worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license to host, store, use, display, reproduce, modify, adapt, edit, publish, and distribute that content. This license is for the limited purpose of operating, developing, providing, promoting, and improving the Services and researching and developing new ones..

Sorry, friend, you just granted Snapchat a license to images of you in the raw.

The bottom line is that these types of licenses are standard course in website and app terms of service – the developers do not want to get sued for anything related to the things you upload.  What you should be more concerned with is that Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are affiliated companies, and share information among themselves. 

From the WhatsApp terms: We joined the Facebook family of companies in 2014. As part of the Facebook family of companies, WhatsApp receives information from, and shares information with, this family of companies. We may use the information we receive from them, and they may use the information we share with them, to help operate, provide, improve, understand, customize, support, and market our Services and their offerings.

So those nudie photos you sent to your significant other on WhatsApp could now be associated with your Facebook profile.  Isn’t the modern internet wonderful?  But I’m sure the Facebook group of companies won’t misuse this information, it’s a small Russian app developer with which we should be concerned.