MOSCOW, Russia (NBC) – FaceApp, a face-editing photo app developed in Russia, has denied in a statement selling or sharing user data with third parties.
The viral smart-phone app, which currently has 80 million active users, uses a filter to age users’ faces.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ordered a national security and privacy investigation into the app.
In a letter to the FBI, schumer said the app has full and irrevocable access to users’ personal photos and data.
He added that this poses national security and privacy risks for millions of U.S. citizens.
FaceApp, however, dismissed U.S. concerns, saying most images are deleted from its servers within 24 hours of the upload date.
The company said 99% of users don’t log in, therefore, “we don’t have access to any data that could identify a person.”
The statement said that while the company’s research and development team is located in Russia, the user data is not transferred there.
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