Deleting photos from FaceApp is anything but easy and straightforward. Here’s the procedure to follow explained step-by-step
Great escape from FaceApp, the app that transforms photos of your face making you look younger, older, prettier or uglier: millions of users around the world, after uploading photos of their face, are now wondering how to delete photos from FaceApp. After an initial, resounding success, the Russian app developed by Wireless Lab 000 has begun to raise more than a few questions about privacy and how it manages the photos it collects.
In fact, it was discovered that the developer of the application has its legal headquarters in St. Petersburg, Russia, but the data passes through servers located elsewhere, even in the United States. Many have also pointed out that FaceApp’s privacy policy is not at all compliant with the recent European GDPR regulation. Users have therefore realized that perhaps it was better to remove their photos from FaceApp, but few have managed to do so. The procedure, on the other hand, is far from intuitive (in fact, it’s really hidden where you’d never go looking for it) and this only further instills doubts in users.
FaceApp: we store photos for no more than 48 hours
Wracked by criticism, Wireless Lab 000 had to run for cover by releasing some statements to TechCrunch: “Many of the images are deleted from our servers within 48 hours of the upload date. We do not sell or share user data with third-party companies.” However, FaceApp’s privacy policy and terms of use clearly state that photos and data collected by the app may be shared with companies “affiliated” with Wireless Lab 000. But the company also had to admit to some of the accusations, such as the one related to the moving of photos to some servers physically located outside Russia. The images, in fact, are not processed by the app on the smartphone but in the cloud, by the much more powerful servers of the company.
How to delete photos from FaceApp
The procedure to delete photos from FaceApp is not easy to discover. The company itself had to communicate it to throw water on the fire of controversy. To remove uploaded photos, you need to go to “Settings > Support > Report a bug”. In practice, to perform an operation that in theory should be a normal part of daily use of the app, you have to follow the procedure for reporting an error in the application. Strange, isn’t it?