Security, Privacy and Steganographic Analysis of FaceApp and TikTo

Abstract

Smartphone applications (Apps) can be addictive for users due to their uniqueness, ease-of-use, trendiness, and growing popularity. The addition of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their functionality has rapidly gained popularity with smartphone users. Over the years, very few smartphone Apps have quickly gained immense popularity like FaceApp and TikTok. FaceApp boasts of using AI to transform photos of human faces using its powerful facial recognition capabilities. FaceApp has been the target of ensuing backlash against it driving the market for a number of other similar yet lesser-known clones into the top ranks of the App stores. TikTok offers video editing and sharing of short video clips whereby making them charming, funny, cringe-inducing, and addictive to the younger generation. FaceApp and TikTok have been the targets of the media, privacy watchdogs, and governments over worries of privacy, ethnicity filters, data misuse, anti-forensics, and security. In this paper, the authors forensically review FaceApp and TikTok Apps from the Android Play Store, for their data ownership, data management, privacy concerns, steganographic use, and overall security posture.