Before, for example, giving permission to an application circulating on Facebook to use your data, you should familiarize yourself with the service provider’s terms of use and privacy statement.
What would you look like as a Viking? A photo challenge circulating on Facebook has raised doubts. Adobe Stock
- A data security expert urges caution when participating in social media challenges.
- The terms of use for Gag Donkey’s viking photo challenge reveal nothing particularly troubling.
- You should read the service provider’s terms of use and the Privacy Statement before handing over your own information.
For the past couple of weeks, you have been able to come across a test on Facebook that allows users to try out how they would look like a Viking. An image is loaded into the image generator that utilizes artificial intelligence, on the basis of which a Viking-themed portrait of the user is created. The application may also ask for permission to use your Facebook profile picture.
Doubts have arisen in social media about whether they dare to upload their photos to such tools and what all the user gives permission for when uploading a photo.
Information security expert at the Cybersecurity Center of the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom Niclas Koskinen tells Iltalehti that he had not come across the mentioned viking photo challenge himself, but knows what they are basically about.
He is not at all surprised by their popularity.
– Similar things have been encountered in several social services over the years. The images are entertaining and people are certainly fascinated by the possibilities brought by the development of technology to manipulate their own images, Koskinen states.
– I have always wondered about these things, that people are sure about what information and rights they give to applications.
There are risks
According to Koskinen, various prank generators may seem harmless, but that does not mean that there are no risks involved.
– Before starting a challenge or editing your photos with an application, it is important to familiarize yourself with the service provider and the application’s terms of use, as well as the privacy statement. Applications may collect some information about users and sell it on.
If you do not read the terms of use carefully enough before accepting them, the user may be surprised at how much information the service provider gives access to.
The story continues below the video.
Can promises be trusted?
Clicking on the Viking photo challenge circulating on Facebook will take you to either a website called Gag Donkey or directly to Facebook’s internal application. Gag Donkey promises that the user’s image will be removed from the server within an hour.
According to Koskinen, this is a good sign, even if the user cannot trust the service provider’s word with 100% certainty.
Gag Donkey in the privacy statement it is also stated that the site may collect information about the user’s name, email address and demographic information, such as zip code and interests. The service provider receives this information via Facebook. The reason for the collection of data has been roundly stated as “operational development”.
Gag Donkey assures in its privacy statement that information is not disclosed to third parties without the user’s permission or unless, for example, the law requires it to be done. If you do not want to leave your data in Gag Donkey’s possession, you can request their deletion by email.
Beware of malware
Although Gag Donkey’s viking photo challenge works inside Facebook or on a separate site, and the user does not need to download new applications to their phone, there are such photo challenges. Koskinen urges to approach them with special caution.
– In some of the challenges, one’s own image is modified with an application downloaded from the application store, and such applications can in the worst case be malware, warns Koskinen.