When we use a service or an app, the first thing we are asked to do is accept certain privacy policies and terms of service. However, most of us don't even bother to read these policies and just accept them.
This practice is wrong as sometimes these terms may not be so favorable to us.
Recently, Ever, a photo storage app, received criticism after revealing that it uses billions of photos uploaded by its users to train its facial recognition system.
Facial recognition is a common practice followed by photo storage applications so that they can categorize photos.
However, using photographs to train a facial recognition tool, which is then sold to private companies, law enforcement, and the military is highly questionable.
According to NBC News, the Ever app is working on a new venture called Ever AI, without revealing it to its millions of users.
The company's CEO, Doug Aley, told NBC News that Ever AI doesn't share photos or identifying information about users. He said the billions of images are simply used to teach an algorithm how to identify faces. Every time a user allows the app's facial recognition to group images of the same people, the facial recognition technology is trained. That technology is then used in the company's commercial facial recognition products.
However, many people question this technique, arguing that using people's personal photos is not the safest in terms of protecting personal data.
Ever AI also said in a press release that it has an “ever-growing private global dataset of 13 billion photos and videos,” but the company did not receive explicit permission from its members to use those photos.
New York University professor Jason Schultz says Ever AI should do more to inform its users about how their photos are used, rather than simply including it in a 2,500-word privacy policy that most users won't read.
