The firms data policy states it collects certain personal information that you voluntary provide to us. More info, Tens of thousands of people have been uploading their photographs to the servers of the New Profile Pic app in exchange for the free avatar. Polezhaeva told VERIFY all user photos are hosted and processed on Amazon and Microsoft servers, which are based in the U.S. and are outside the Russian Federation. The app, NewProfilePic is run by the company, Linerock Investments Ltd which is registered in Moscow, Russia. (Was this charge for a subscription? Kate Polezhaeva, a spokesperson for Linerock Investment LTD, which developed NewProfilePic, told VERIFY via email the company currently has development and customer support offices in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. Rifles were involved in 297 deaths in the U.S. in 2022 and constipation killed 2,167., Drinking or using tap water treated with chlorine is dangerous because chlorine is a poison., Joe Biden described America as the foothills of the Himalayas with Xi Jinping., Kid Rock tweeted, Some people wouldnt recognize tyranny if it slapped a mask on their face, made them stand 6 feet apart, and forced them to take a vaccine for a virus with a 99.8% survival rate., The train that derailed in Ohio was carrying over 300,000 gallons of a chemical that was banned in 1974.. Lastly, the claim that users of this app had money taken out of their bank accounts is, so far, unsubstantiated. Users have been updating their profile pictures with a new image created by the app - unaware their information is being sent to a company registered in Russia. And the Russian address in domain details was his former Russian address where he hasn't lived for a long time now. (AP). Ms Polezhaeva told MailOnline: "We are a BVI company with development and customer support offices in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. If you will check the search results you will see other apps with pretty similar titles. It's also important to read a service's privacy policy before downloading as you may be unknowingly agreeing to share personal information. You can also follow us on Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. "We collect your name, email address, user name, social network information and other information you provide when you register.". This is necessary to apply all those fancy effects driven by AI technologies., App developers, describing how the technology works, said: Whenever you choose an effect that involves face manipulations we use special face recognition technologies to detect a photo; find required facial key points, and apply the effect to your photo., They added: The detected key points may be kept along with the photo on our servers for up to two weeks from the last interaction with the photo. She stressed the company is not affiliated with any particular government or country. The firm claims the "detected key points may be kept along with the photo on the servers of our providers for up to two weeks from the last interaction with the photo to speed up further processing of the same photos". The firm also collects the IP address, browser type and settings from a computer or the device data from a mobile phone handset. "We understand that due to the current events in Ukraine, any connection to Russia could raise suspicions," Lunina said. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. I dont think I have any significance to Russia and I think they have much bigger issues right now. "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," he added. 33701 Facebook users are being warned over a popular new profile pic trend that is sending your data to Moscow. 1800 I Street NW In early May, NewProfilePic, an application that uses artificial intelligence technologies to stylize your social media profile picture, shot to the top of the charts on Google Play and the Apple App Store. This includes the users name, email address, social network information, IP address, browser type and the device data from a mobile phone or settings from a computer. The New Profile Pic app allows users to upload photos and edit them to look like paintings or cartoons. ", Lula's staff infiltrated and caused damage while the Brazilian Patriots cleaned up., Ray Epps confessed to Jan. 6 Committee he orchestrated attack on Capitol, Tee Higgins "isn't even leaving the hospital till he knows (Damar) Hamlin is OK.", Video shows Sen. John Kennedy telling Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, You will be impeached., The Federal Reserve has suspended the availability of new currency.. When searching WHOIS, a public database that houses information collected when someone registers for a domain name, archived results from May 11 said NewProfilePic.com was registered to a Moscow-based address. Lunina said the domain address in Moscowwas registered tothe former addressof Victor Sazhin, the founder of Linerock. I personally was born in USSR in Moscow and moved to Krivyi Rih [Ukraine] being two months old. We need to be mindful of how much data we share with companies as our privacy is extremely important., The VERIFY team works to separate fact from fiction so that you can understand what is true and false. Let it be different, always new and made by AI! The spokesperson said: The address on Moscow River is the address of lawyers who registered the company. Another popular social media rumor claimed that people had money taken out of their bank accounts shortly after downloading this app. Snopes does say that people should be aware that the access they grant when they download any app but again NewProfilePic isnt out of the ordinary. The company's data policy is clear that 'we collect certain personal information that you voluntarily provide to us'. By now the address has been changed in order to avoid any confusion. And the Russian address in domain details was his former Russian address where he hasn't Hands down the best. In a word, no. It is true that the apps domain was initially registered in Moscow. It asks for access to the users camera, photos and media. The ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database is licensed under the Open Database License and contents under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. This quickly changed now to Florida, Ritter noted. In this ever changing world, why stick to one profile pic on your social media? Express. The NewProfilePic app does not access users banking information or contact lists, and it does not send their information to Russia. The data comes directly from the leaked files ICIJ has received in connection with various investigations and each dataset encompasses a defined time period specified in the database. While this app requests permission to access certain data on your phone, these requests aren't unusual. The app can As people posted photos from this new app, a piece of mobile software that uses artificial intelligence to create profile pics that look as if they had been painted, messages started circulating on social media claiming that this app was some sort of Russian malware scam. The firm claims the 'detected key points may be kept along with the photo on the servers of our providers for up to two weeks from the last interaction with the photo to speed up further processing of the same photos'. "We collect your name, email address, user name, social network information and other information you provide when you register, set up an account, contact us by email or use our services," Linerock Investment Ltd. states. The real problem is they're not asking about the other 30 apps on their phone that are doing the same thing [] The reality is, if you look at the fine print of this app, it's collecting less data than many other apps. Me and my work bestie were just playing with this app, Josten pointed out. Elle Josten of Cape Coral created numerous pictures of her six-month-old son. Official govt docs expose Michelle Obamas 14 year history as a man., "Woody Harrelsons 60 seconds in the middle of his monologue was cut out of the edits released after the show., BREAKING Trump preps Marines to stop presidential coup.. You can read more about the company's privacy policy on its website. District of Columbia We need your help. The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. I pray Rishi Sunak succeeds so as HENRY DEEDES: Wowee was he pumped! It adds: "We collect your name, email address, user name, social network information and other information you provide when you register.". But, express permission is required. If you are going to download these types of apps to have fun on social media platforms whether its Facebook or othersmaybe not use your true cell phone, he said. We tested and explored NewProfilePic for ourselves. ESET Internet Security Global Cybersecurity Advisor Jake Moore has questioned why the popular new app would want such a high level of data from its users, especially when the company is based abroad. People are often surprised to learn just how much personal data mobile apps are allowed to access. Several VERIFY viewers reached out to ask if the app is safe to use and what connections it has to Russia. "GUYS! WebBest 31 Apps by "Linerock Investments LTD", such as Photo Lab Picture Editor & Art , Visage Lab face retouch , ToonMe - cartoons from photos , Christmas Photo Frames, Effects & Cards Art and Photo Collada collage maker . Something went wrong, please try again later. The app has more than 150 million users, according to the Google and Apple app stores. "He does not live in the Russian Federation now," she wrote in an email to PolitiFact. VERIFY reached out to Amazon and Microsoft to confirm but did not hear back at the time of publication. The Linerock Investments, LTD annual revenue is estimated at < 1M. It has been downloaded more than a million times and has almost 50,000 reviews on the Google Play Store. one Facebook post warned. 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. The outlet reports that the company behind the app is called Linerock Investments Ltd, which according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Offshore Leaks database, is registered in Moscow. Where he has n't Hands down the best phone handset the NewProfilePic app does not access banking... 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