Gradient, the viral app that tells you what famous you look like
It is a platform that allows you to edit selfies. In recent days, several images created with this service were shared on social networks.
n these days images edited with the Gradient app (available for iOS and Andorid) began to go viral on social networks. It is a platform that allows you to modify your selfies (add filters, modify the light, crop, etc.) and that also, when you upload a photo, it tells you which famous person you look like.
It is not the only one of its kind: there are several services that offer this option, but the novelty is that this tool was recently added and, above all, that it seems to be having a certain degree of popularity on the networks.
On Instagram and Twitter you can find several images with the hashtag #Gradient that shows the result that is achieved with the service. When you try it, you will see that the result varies a lot depending on the pose, the light or the hairstyle that is taken into account.
It is enough to try it to see that the results are not very precise and in fact it varies a lot depending on the photo that is uploaded: it is not the same if an image is uploaded with one hairstyle or another, in profile or front, etc. The service can be used for free, as a trial, only for three days, then you have to pay a monthly subscription of USD 3.99 or annually of USD 19.99.
The service takes the image that is added, analyzes it digitally and shows the process that is carried out until the final result is reached. In total, you can see a succession of four photos: the original, two transition photos and the famous one with whom the similarity is established.
The development of the app was in the hands of a company called Ticket To the Moon, as mentioned in the stores where it is published. The service is available for iOS and Android.
To use the app, as you might imagine, you have to allow access to the cell phone storage (which is where the photo galleries are) and you can also grant permission to the camera. As for the conditions of use, they can be read here.
There it is mentioned that by using the services Gradient is granted a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, and sublicensable use license to provide its services. This is a common phase that is included in applications of this style and even in social networks since they require that license of use to operate.
It is also specified that the use is made respecting the privacy policies of the company, which are detailed here.
Within the article, all the information that is collected is mentioned and that, as can be seen when reading the terms and conditions of other services, is common practice in the technological world, except for a few exceptions. Among other things, data is collected on the device ID, the site from which the service is used, the platform and the operating system.
As for the user's face data, the company says that information is not collected, stored, shared or transferred outside of the device. Nor is this data used to identify a particular user or for verification, advertising or marketing. And, as noted, face data is not used to build a user profile, as well as to facilitate or encourage in any way that third parties can identify anonymous users or reconstruct profiles based on that information. At least that is what is mentioned in the privacy policies.
It should be remembered that when access is granted to an app on the mobile, there is always another risk and that is that there is some vulnerability that could potentially expose the user's data. But this is something that can happen with any system.
As users, the risks can only be minimized by deciding to download only the services that are needed, read the use permissions and privacy policies and, above all, only download content from the official Google or Apple stores that take precautions to minimize the risks of malware or serious flaws within an app since the services are analyzed before being published.
