Recently, selfie app Voilà AI Artist has become very popular among iOS and Android users. The app allows people to turn their photos into cartoon versions. Many find it entertaining, but security expert Ritesh Kotak told Global News that it could be dangerous for users' security.
“If you have your location enabled when you take the photo, you are actually giving the latitude and longitude, and in some cases, even the altitude from which that photo was taken, and that information is uploaded to a server – in this case, the server that this company runs – and now they have access to that information,” Kotak said.
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The Voilà AI Artist app states in privacy policy that the company retains users' personal information for purposes for which the information can be used lawfully. It also says it does not keep it for longer than is necessary.
“For any other content, we will honor your request for deletion; however, there is a high likelihood that copies of any personal content will be retained indefinitely in our systems,” the policy states.
“Additionally, due to the nature of the Internet, copies of your content, including content that you have removed or deleted from your account, may also exist elsewhere on the Internet and may persist indefinitely“.
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Voilà AI Artist has been used by many people around the world, who have fun creating cartoon versions of themselves and uploading them to social media.
At present, there is no indication that this app is using user data for anything else, but Kotak said that people should keep in mind that some of their data is being shared and should know how to avoid potential breaches and cyberattacks.
“If you are going to use such apps just think smart, don't give them access to your entire photo album. Make sure you have all the privacy features enabled. For example, make sure they don't collect your location data“.
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The security expert also explained some of the protection measures he uses: “I like to use separate email addresses and I always use different passwords for different sites, because we have seen sites on these applications get hacked in the past.”
Kotak said that if users take these basic steps, they can use apps, like Voilà AI Artist, more safely, though they should always be mindful of “how much of their data an app can see.”.
Source: Global News
