Cybersecurity experts warn personal data leaks with animated image editing photo apps

HÀ NỘI — Cybersecurity experts have warned of the risks of personal data leaks after a surge in sharing photos on an application that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create animated images for entertainment.

Loopsie - a mobile application capable of creating animated images from user-entered photo data is currently causing a "fever" in the community.

The application reached the number one free download on the App Store in Việt Nam after only a short time.

Vũ Ngọc Sơn, Technical Director of Việt Nam National Cyber Security Technology Corporation told Tin tức (News) online newspaper that photos taken with mobile phones would often provide information about the time, the type of device being used and especially the location where the photo was taken.

From that information, it was possible to summarise your habits, schedules or movements, so people should consider if they did not want their personal information to be leaked, he added.

He added that providing many photographs to an application would also cause risks as the photos could be used to create fake videos.

“If the photos got into the hands of bad people, they could use Deepfake technology to create content that impersonates for wrongful purposes and even scams,” he said.

He said people should be cautious when sharing their personal data, especially facial data as well as those of their loved ones.

"Nothing is free when you use an application in this world," Sơn said.

He also said on careful inspection, the anime photos are not exactly the same as the originals.

However, people still accept and it quickly become a trend because they consider the photos were just for fun, he said.

According to information technology experts, since its inception in 2018, the Loopsie application is little known, but recently, after the developer updated the feature to use AI specialising in image reproduction, the application has quickly created a trend. It only takes about 15-20 seconds for the application to complete an animated photo from the original content.

Việt Khôi, an information technology expert said the trend of photo editing is not new, it is essentially a form of collecting user personal data.

The application of AI technology will create photo editing software with great attraction, he said.

The processing will require the users to upload captured images to the service provider's server, thereby posing the risks of data disclosure, data leakage or use for other purposes, he said.

He recommends that users should not put sensitive or very-private photos into the application to avoid the risks, he said.

Recently, there are many warnings of online scams, which use collected personal data to build trust with victims, he said.

In addition to data such as phone number, citizen identification numbers, residence address, email, and full name, users also need to pay attention to image data, he said.

“Otherwise, one day you will receive Deepfake calls related to financial matters," he said. — VNS

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