A warning has been issued to over a new on-trend picture editing app that is said to be allegedly sending people’s data to Russia. The company behind the popular app, Linerock Investments, is reportedly based next to Russia’s Ministry of Defence, three miles outside Red Square
The on-trend and increasing prevalent app, called New Profile Pic, sees users updating their profile picture to a hand-drawn image of themselves has edited for them for free by an AI.
The app uses facial recognition technology to find key features on an image of your face which is uploaded to the servers. An edited version with your likeness that can be shared online is then created. However, many of the hundreds of thousands of Facebook users who have already used the app are unaware that by doing this their information is being sent to a company registered in Moscow.
It has been claimed by MailOnLIne that the company behind the app, Linerock Investments, is based next to Russia’s Ministry of Defence, three miles outside Red Square. According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Offshore Leaks database, Linerock is registered in Moscow and has a Russian director.
Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor, ESET Internet Security told MailOnline: ‘This app is likely a way of capturing people’s faces in high resolution and I would question any app wanting this amount of data, especially one which is largely unheard of and based in another country.’
The New Profile Pic app, which was launched in May, can be downloaded onto your mobile phone and allows the sending of data including your location and access to other social media images on your news feeds. The app’s data policy states, ‘We collect certain personal information that you voluntarily provide to us. We collect your name, email address, user name, social network information and other information you provide when you register.’
A spokesperson for the app told MailOnline, ‘We are a BVI company with development offices in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus,’ and said they do not share any user information in a way that is not listed in their privacy policy.
