WEBVTT - Face App--The Latest Red Scare!  Geoffrey Fowler talks to Armstrong & Getty

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<v Speaker 1>The Armstrong and Getty Show. So we've posted pictures of

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<v Speaker 1>what we'd look like if we were old. We didn't

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<v Speaker 1>alter Joe and I, but everybody else. I kind of

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<v Speaker 1>liked my look. I I look like a colorful old coat.

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<v Speaker 1>It's called the face app, and you can you can

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<v Speaker 1>pretty easy to take a picture and then you turn

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<v Speaker 1>in yourself into what you look like old. And people

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<v Speaker 1>were really digging it. For the last week that it's

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<v Speaker 1>been out at swept the nation and went viral. We've

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<v Speaker 1>posted pictures of us at Armstrong and Getty dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>But danger the Russians are behind it exactly in the

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<v Speaker 1>d n C among others have warned their people do

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<v Speaker 1>not use this app. Jeffrey Fowler joins us. Jeffrey is

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<v Speaker 1>the technology columnist for the Washington Post. He's based in

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<v Speaker 1>Beautiful Crime written San Francisco. To continue the theme of

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<v Speaker 1>the show. But anyway, Jeffrey, what's the deal with this app?

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<v Speaker 1>It is, uh, the latest version of the Red Peril.

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<v Speaker 1>Everyone is thinking, oh, I was just you know, playing

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<v Speaker 1>along in now the latest viral craze. But now people

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<v Speaker 1>are worried. Gosh if I handed over my face to

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<v Speaker 1>the Russian government, UM. So I spent yesterday kind of

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<v Speaker 1>digging into this app, looking what data it was collecting

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<v Speaker 1>as sending up behind the scenes, and then I even

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<v Speaker 1>contacted the CEO of the company that makes it UM

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<v Speaker 1>And I gotta say, I think we should be worried

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<v Speaker 1>about this app, but not any more than we should

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<v Speaker 1>be worried about a lot of other apps that we've

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<v Speaker 1>got on our phone. Yeah, and we've talked about this,

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<v Speaker 1>uh many times, talked about it with you on how

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<v Speaker 1>an app I almost downloaded once that was a bunch

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<v Speaker 1>of fun emojis with pug faces on it. I became

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<v Speaker 1>aware in the agreement that part of the agreement was

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<v Speaker 1>if I download this pug emoji app, it gets access

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<v Speaker 1>to every key stroke I've ever made on my phone,

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<v Speaker 1>which I didn't even know that was possible. That scares

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<v Speaker 1>me more than the Russians having my picture. So, Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>there's lots of apps out there you should be worried about.

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<v Speaker 1>There are, and part of the challenges. Look, it's a

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<v Speaker 1>really good thing that here in America we're now having

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<v Speaker 1>a conversation about data and privacy and whether we should

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<v Speaker 1>be trusting certain apps. I've been hammering on this thing

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<v Speaker 1>for a decade now, and no one's are listening to me.

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<v Speaker 1>But I find the people are listening, so that's a

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<v Speaker 1>good thing. But the problem is it's really hard for

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<v Speaker 1>us to get the information that we need to make

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<v Speaker 1>smart choices when we're downloading something like this. If you

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<v Speaker 1>go to the Space app paid on the Apple iOS

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<v Speaker 1>App Store or the Google Play Store, you can't really

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<v Speaker 1>get answers to some really basic questions like what is

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<v Speaker 1>this thing doing, what are they doing to my face?

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<v Speaker 1>Who are they're sharing it with, how long are they

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<v Speaker 1>holding onto it? So we have kind of a fundamental problem.

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<v Speaker 1>And I think this this current scare over this app

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<v Speaker 1>really kind of reflects that I had a banking app

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<v Speaker 1>Bank that I really like that I couldn't figure out

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<v Speaker 1>why my location device kept turning on because I leave

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<v Speaker 1>mine off on my phone all the time because I

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<v Speaker 1>don't want location attached to my pictures and all that

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<v Speaker 1>sort of stuff. But something with this banking app turned

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<v Speaker 1>on your location location of ice and I I got

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<v Speaker 1>rid of it and complained to the bank and they

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<v Speaker 1>got rid of it. But there's so many apps, the

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<v Speaker 1>new stuff that that's that's creepy totally that we should

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<v Speaker 1>probably talk about what face app is and isn't doing,

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<v Speaker 1>or at least what we can see, and then also

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<v Speaker 1>what it's CEO says it is and isn't doing. And

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<v Speaker 1>then the question is do we trust that ceo? Um,

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<v Speaker 1>But what it is doing is whenever you take a

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<v Speaker 1>photo with the app, or you you know, pick a

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<v Speaker 1>photo out of your your photo collection, of your camera roll,

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<v Speaker 1>it's sending that photo to face app servers to be processed. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>It has access to your whole camera roll, but it

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<v Speaker 1>isn't taking the whole camera roll and uploading it. That

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<v Speaker 1>was one of the first means. I'm not Jeffrey Epstein,

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<v Speaker 1>So you get pictures from my phone. I'm not really

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<v Speaker 1>that worried about it, And what are you gonna do

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<v Speaker 1>with them? I have some tasteful notes I'm proud of.

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<v Speaker 1>So the next thing then is so they've got a photo,

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<v Speaker 1>so they they've got this really terrible privacy policy for

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<v Speaker 1>this thing, and a lot of apps that for the

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<v Speaker 1>terrible privacy policies, and it sort of suggests that they're

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<v Speaker 1>going to hold on to it forever. The CEO of

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<v Speaker 1>the company says that told me that they actually delete

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<v Speaker 1>most of them within forty eight hours because like they

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<v Speaker 1>don't want to pay the story either. Your your mug

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<v Speaker 1>is not not worth holding onto. Well, we're about out

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<v Speaker 1>of time, So what would your headline be though that

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<v Speaker 1>all apps are dangerous? This one is no worse than others, well,

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<v Speaker 1>actually no better than others almost all. A lot of

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<v Speaker 1>the other ones that are similar. I think that's exactly right.

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<v Speaker 1>There's you know, the Russians, my own this one, but

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<v Speaker 1>there's also a lot of popular one of the Chinese. Ooh,

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<v Speaker 1>like TikTok. That's a good thing to know. Jeffrey Jeffrey Fowler,

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<v Speaker 1>technology columnist for The Washington Post. Jeffrey, in ten seconds,

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<v Speaker 1>how good a screening organization is, say Apple's app store

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<v Speaker 1>or the big Google app store? How good are they

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<v Speaker 1>keeping us safe? I would give them a C minus

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<v Speaker 1>both C minus. Okay, so they're not useless, but it's

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<v Speaker 1>better than not trying at all. Jeffrey Fowler, Jeffrey, we

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<v Speaker 1>always enjoy the chance to chat. Thanks for taking a

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<v Speaker 1>couple of minutes, and we have a link to your

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<v Speaker 1>fabulous piece in the Post and Armstrong and getty dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks man, You bet