What do companies do with your face? - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve probably used Faceapp to see how you’ll look when you’re older.

But in the days after Faceapp blew up, a conspiracy theory spread across the internet. People were worried that Wireless Lab - the app’s maker - was feeding data to the Russian government.This led to the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer calling for an investigation into FaceApp. In a letter posted on Twitter, Mr Schumer called it "deeply troubling" that personal data of US citizens could go to a "hostile foreign power".

In this episode we speak to the BBC’s Russia and disinformation specialist Olga Robinson about why worrying about Faceapp’s Russian roots misses the point. Maryam Ahmed - a BBC expert in Machine intelligence – answers the questions the Faceapp story throws up and explains why any private company would want pictures of our face in the first place.Producers: Duncan Barber and Lucy Hancock.
Mixed by Nicolas Raufast.Editor: Philly Beaumont.

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