Is the NewProfilePic app safe?

Is the NewProfilePic app safe?

A brand new app that lets customers flip their profile photos into cartoons has been gaining recognition on Fb. The app is known as NewProfilePic and it’s throughout social media, however is the app secure?

 

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NewProfilePic Image Editor (or NewProfilePic: Profile Image on the Google Play retailer) helps you to customise your profile photos, however some individuals are involved concerning the security of the app.

The app has shot up the app charts to carry a primary place with lots of of 1000’s of downloads within the final couple of weeks. The app lets customers add a picture and add certainly one of a number of cartoony kinds to create a enjoyable, new image.

Nonetheless, like with many different apps that blow up in recognition, many individuals are skeptical about newProfilePic’s security.

Some individuals are saying that the app is Russian malware spying in your telephone. Others declare the app is primarily based in Russia and has ties to the Kremlin. One particular person even stated the app takes “all of your info and sends it to Moscow.”

So is there any benefit to those claims? Is NewProfilePic actually a harmful app that harvests tons of consumer information to ship to the Russian authorities? Let’s discover out.

Is the NewProfilePic app sending your info to Russia?

After a little bit of digging, it seems to be like NewProfilePic isn’t any extra invasive than different apps that yow will discover on the App Retailer and Google Play retailer.

The app does require digital camera and storage permissions, amongst just a few others, however these permissions should not out of the atypical in comparison with different apps.

The great folks over at Snopes dove additional into the claims of hazard tied to this app. With reference to NewProfilePic sending consumer information to Moscow, the claims had been discovered to don’t have any actual weight.

The declare stems from a site registration for the app’s web site that reveals the web site was primarily based in Moscow. Nonetheless, in talking with Linerock Investments, the app’s writer, Snopes discovered that this wasn’t fairly true.

The event of the app originates within the British Virgin Islands, the place Linerock Investments is positioned. However the firm employs a global crew of builders, a few of which reside, or did reside, in Russia.

In keeping with the corporate, the person who registered the web site lived in Moscow at one level. However that’s now not the case. The web site’s registration location has since been up to date to point out Florida as the situation.

Is the app stealing cash from customers?

One other rumor that Snopes discovered concerning the potential hurt of the NewProfilePic claims that the app charged a consumer an unsolicited price of £60 via the App Retailer.

Whereas the cost itself could possibly be respectable, an organization spokesperson instructed Snopes that the app is “completely free and it doesn’t include in-app purchases so it doesn’t require any cost info of the customers.”

Nonetheless, to be truthful, I downloaded the app to see if this was true and located that there’s a single in-app cost possibility within the NewProfilePic app. You possibly can join “NewProfilePic Professional,” which gives a few further options, for a single cost of $29.99.

It’s unclear if the corporate’s spokesperson made these claims earlier than this in-app buy possibility was out there. Or perhaps they made a mistake of their assertion. Both approach, there’s nothing that basically substantiates the claims that NewProfilePic is stealing cash from customers.

Is the NewProfilePic app secure to make use of?

On the finish of the day, there’s nothing that implies that this new app is any extra invasive than different apps that you just discover on the Google Play Retailer or App Retailer.

Linerock Investments has developed different smartphone apps, together with ToonMe and Picture Lab. And the permissions required to make use of the app don’t recommend something out of the atypical.

That being stated, when an app blows up like this one, it tends to spawn tons of clones. If you happen to’re fascinated by attempting out the NewProfilePic, be sure to select the official app from Linerock Investments on the App Retailer or Google Play retailer.

In any other case, you may change into a sufferer of scammers impersonating the app to make the most of its skyrocketing recognition.