Anyone who’s logged on to Instagram in the last few weeks has no doubt been greeted by a barrage of stunning, colorful animate portraits.
These are, of course, the result of the latest viral craze, all thanks to Lensa, a photo imaging app that promises, as they say on their website, to “take your photos to the next level”.
How do they create the portraits?
Even though they’ve truly only taken social media by storm in the last. few weeks, Lensa has been around since 2018.
They are, in fact, one of several photo editing services available on both the ios and Google Play stores, and created by Prisma AI.
It’s the recent surge in popularity, however, is entirely due to their AI avatar portraits.
What is perhaps so striking about these portraits, in addition to the vibrant colors and romantic scenarios is that these aren’t simply a filter.
But rather wholly original portraits, created by artificial intelligence, turning users into anything from an anime hero to a fairy tale princess.
As Prisma explained on their Instagram page, “these AI avatars are generated from scratch but with your face in mind.”
So, how does it exactly work?
Well, after downloading the App, users will be asked to share between 10 and 20 clear pictures of their faces, and then pick a gender: male, female or other.
20 or so minutes later, users will get 50 different custom-made, 4K resolution images of themselves.
Art comes at a price
Perhaps the most striking element of this latest social media craze is unlike many others, the Lensa service isn’t free.
Those 50 images will cost users $3.99.
Something both iPhone and Android users don’t seem to mind in the slightest, as Lensa is currently the most popular photo and video app available in both the ios app store and Google Play.
Though, most of these users are not, in fact, paying for the service, but rather using the 7-day free trial, and then deleting that app once the trial period is finished.
As seven days is more than enough time to get your custom-made art.
Of course, I had to try it. The first image below is a good one, but as for the rest…. ?
Is Lensa Safe?
Of course, not everyone has jumped on the Lensa bandwagon.
Primarily owing to some concerns about how safe an application that requires multiple photos of your face, as well as your credit card information, actually is.
Lensa declares in its privacy policy that all uploaded photos will not be used “for any reason other than to apply different stylized filters or effects to them.”
However, if one were to take a closer look at the terms and conditions on the page of Lensa’s parent company, Prisma, one will quickly notice several things not made clear in Lensa’s privacy policy.
While the terms and conditions make it clear that you still retain all rights to the user content, they also sneak it in that by simply using the app, you are permitting what is known as a “company license”, allowing Prisma to use your content “for the limited purpose of operating, developing, providing and improving Prisma and researching, developing and improving our existing and new products.”
Of course, all users can directly contact Prisma at privacy@prisma-ai.com, and request “access to, modification, correction, update, erasure or deletion” to any personal information provided to Prisma.
Requesting those changes, however, in no way guarantees they will happen, as Lensa’s privacy policy also states:
“We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.”
Always Use Caution when sharing a picture
No matter the app, or the service it provides, one should always proceed with caution when uploading a picture online or to any app.
Thankfully, there are helpful steps to staying safe and keeping your personal information protected when uploading photos, or any personal information, to an app or website.
- Always have antivirus software, such as TotalAV, running.
- If you have a VPN, turn it on so your location can’t be tracked.
- Remove location, time and date, and other info from the photo (step-by-step guides for desktop, Android, and iPhone.). You can make sure all data regarding the location of where my picture was taken is removed. Yes, your photos have “EXIF metadata” which is a technical way of saying your photos have info including:
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- location of where the photo was taken
- time and date of the picture taken
- specific info about the device that took the photo
- camera settings associated with the picture
How to remove location data from your photos
Here are quick instructions on how to remove the metadata from your photos
- On Windows:
- Right-click image
- Find “Properties” at bottom of menu and click it
- In pop-up box, click the “Details” tab. At the bottom of the window click “Remove properties and personal information”
- Click ok.
- On Mac
- Open image in Preview
- In top menu, click “Tools” > Show Inspector
- Click the “i” icon for information
- Click “GPS” tab and then “Remove Location information”. (If the GPS tab isn’t there, then your photo doesn’t have any location data)
- On Android
- On iOS
Lock up your tech
While there is no current evidence of malware associated with this app, we’ll keep our eye on it. My biggest desire is to educate and inform you about the increased real threat to each of our connected devices and encourage you to use strong antivirus security protection on everything in your life connected to the rest of the world.
The best way to protect yourself is to install antivirus software on your devices. Our top choice for Antivirus software is TotalAV. It’s super easy to install and you’ll have peace of mind knowing you’ll have real-time protection, phishing scam protection, ransomware protection plus more. Protects Windows, Mac, Android & iOS Devices. You can check out our review of my top picks here: Best Antivirus Security Software and Apps to Protect You 2022.
As always, if you have doubts about sharing your image or personal information with certain apps or websites, it’s always wise to trust your gut instincts and proceed with caution.
Even if it means missing out on the current viral craze.
Related:
- Is NewProfilePic App safe to use?
- The safest way to browse the web: VPN Browsing
- VPNs and Browsing the Internet Privately – What you need to know
- How to protect an iPhone from malware