What’s Up With Faceapp?

FaceApp is a mobile application for iOS and Android developed by Russian company Wireless Lab which uses artificial intelligence to generate highly realistic transformations of faces in photographs. The app can transform a face to make it smile, look younger, look older, or change gender (source: Wikipedia).

Faceapp has become very popular on social media because of its cool filters. Everyone, even celebrities, went gaga over this app. How it works is, you simply have to download the app for free. It is available for download to both Android and iOS users. It’s pretty straightforward and not complicated at all. You can either take a selfie or upload a picture from your mobile phone and voila! You can start playing with different filters already, simple as that. Everyone seems to enjoy Faceapp until recently, privacy issues started surfacing the Internet. 

According to news, Faceapp might have unauthorized access to users personal camera roll or that photos were being stored in the cloud and then transferred to Russian servers, where they could be accessed by Russian state security agencies. People on the Internet began to panic that Russians might be able to share any user data they wanted. Another issue raised by FaceApp users was that the iOS app appears to be overriding settings if a user had denied access to their camera roll, after people reported they could still select and upload a photo even if, for instance, the app not having permission to access their photos.

FaceApp added that they “might” store the photo users have chosen to upload in the cloud for a short period, claiming this is done for “performance and traffic” — such as to make sure that a user doesn’t repeatedly upload the same photo to carry out another edit. Furthermore, Faceapp mentioned that “most images” are deleted from their servers within 48 hours from the upload date. It also claims no user data is “transferred to Russia”, even though its R&D team is based there. According to Faceapp founder Yaroslav Goncharov that: “We don’t sell or share any user data with any third parties.”

So how do users delete their data? If you are worried and would like to completely get rid of all your photos on FaceApp, the only way to do it is by sending delete requests via the mobile app using “Settings-Support-Report a bug” with the word “privacy” in the subject line. 

Just recently, Faceapp releases a statement for its users’ peace of mind. Here it is in full:

We are receiving a lot of inquiries regarding our privacy policy and therefore, would like to provide a few points that explain the basics:

1. FaceApp performs most of the photo processing in the cloud. We only upload a photo selected by a user for editing. We never transfer any other images from the phone to the cloud.

2. We might store an uploaded photo in the cloud. The main reason for that is performance and traffic: we want to make sure that the user doesn’t upload the photo repeatedly for every edit operation. Most images are deleted from our servers within 48 hours from the upload date.

3. We accept requests from users for removing all their data from our servers. Our support team is currently overloaded, but these requests have our priority. For the fastest processing, we recommend sending the requests from the FaceApp mobile app using “Settings-Support-Report a bug” with the word “privacy” in the subject line. We are working on the better UI for that.

4. All FaceApp features are available without logging in, and you can log in only from the settings screen. As a result, 99% of users don’t log in; therefore, we don’t have access to any data that could identify a person.

5. We don’t sell or share any user data with any third parties.

6. Even though the core R&D team is located in Russia, the user data is not transferred to Russia.

Inclement Weather + Online Shopping

Here comes the rain again. I'm no girl scout but due to the inclement weather, I never leave the house without my rain gear. Rainy day sucks for the most part but what can you do when you live in a country where the only seasons available are wet and dry, plus blame the rest of it on climate change. My cat has been sleeping a lot lately so I can tell that it's cuddle season once again. 

Rain, rain, go away...

Bed weather for Atari cat

Rainy season comes with a lot of delay in terms of parcel deliveries, thank God I got all my packages already. I used to shop on eBay a lot but it takes a month or two before my parcel arrives because majority of the shops are virtually located abroad so I opted for something local although these days I heard that even orders coming from overseas no longer take forever to arrive in the mail but still, I prefer to shop from local sellers just to be sure in case a problem arises. I would like to be able to talk to someone I can understand. I thought I will stay with eBay for the rest of my life until I discovered Shopee maybe three or four years ago (this is not sponsored btw). I am so far still satisfied with their service because I am able to receive my packages in less than a week. Of course, I had my share of order problems in the past but it's nothing major and was resolved in no time. I still enjoy online shopping for over a decade now I guess because I am vigilant enough to know if a seller can be trusted or not. I suggest checking buyer feedback on items that you are looking to purchase first to make sure that it's legit and always opt for online sellers with high ratings and good reviews. It's better to be safe than sorry.

My Shopee haul (L-R): Macbook Air 11 case, 16cm Studio Ring Light & my cute Cat Coffee Teaspoon

Not All That Glitter Is Gold

I love anything that shimmers from makeup to nail polish, but it never occurred to me where that shine actually comes from until after watching The Dark Secret Behind Your Favorite Makeup Products, a documentary that exposes child labor on Mica Mining, the dark side of beauty is that, not all that glitter is gold. 

So what exactly is Mica? It is a naturally occurring mineral dust often found in foundations, as filler in cement and asphalt and as insulation material in electric cables. Mica is pretty much everywhere, so to speak, it is used in construction materials that require the use of protective gear and masks when exposed, as prolonged exposure may cause lung scarring. Mica can be found in Russia, China, Finland, U.S., and Canada but India is the largest producer of this mineral. 

Mica is mined by children as early as four or five years old because their hands are small enough to fit into the tight crevices where it is commonly found. Imagine the children in remote villages of Jharkhand and Bihar who risk their lives every single day going inside dangerous caves without protection because there is no vital means of livelihood in the area. Children have died in collapsed mines but those who survived still kept coming back because they are left with no choice to sustain their lives. According to Responsible Mica Initiative that about 25% of the world production of mica comes from illegal collection in North-East India where more than 20,000 children are working in extremely harsh conditions to support their family (source: https://www.responsible-mica-initiative.com/the-mica-issue.html). Mica being linked to child labor is known to the cosmetic industry but laxity is the problem that is why even vegan makeup brands have no guarantees that it is cruelty-free for children. There are makeup brands, however, that are working towards ethically sourced mica such as Sephora Collection, Revlon, Estee Lauder Companies (which includes Bobbi Brown, Becca, Smashbox, Tom Ford Beauty, Clinique and Too Faced), L'Oreal Companies (such as Urban Decay, Maybelline, Essie and NYX) just to name a few (link to source here).

The mica miners of India

As a vegan, it hit hard me that supporting cruelty-free brands is NOT enough. Yes, animals are the most abused living beings on this planet but it does not mean that humans especially children do not experience cruelty as well. The ugly truth about the beauty industry is child labor. Slavery is very rampant not just in the beauty industry but pretty much in every industry and the only way to make it stop is to discontinue support for brands that continue to enslave and take advantage of helpless human beings just for profit. 

A little bit of compassion goes a long way so please, take child labor out of your cosmetics. 

Back to School + Positive Reinforcement on Animals

It’s Back to School 

It's back to school season again. June is the start of a new academic school year for most schools in the Philippines, but not yet for my niece who's an incoming grade six student because the start of classes is not until August. It was just like yesterday when she’s in grade three, time flies really. It’s only three more weeks until the new school year begins. She’s pretty much ready for school, she’s got new set of books, uniforms and we’re also done shopping for school supplies. I guess what I'm excited about is that she will get to see her old friends again and hopefully meet new ones. 

I thought the main reason for moving the start of the school year from June to August is just because it's the start of the rainy season in the country, but also to align it with the international academic calendar. According to sources, the Philippines and Thailand are the only countries that start their classes in June. To be honest, I did not notice a huge difference at all because the rainy season does not end in June, it's pretty much until the end of the year actually so there's still a lot of typhoons and class suspensions. 

Positive Reinforcement on Dogs

I’ve also been training our pets basic tricks for four years now. Jagger, our three-year-old German Shepherd just recently learned to catch food. I’m no pro when it comes to training animals but I believe that it is necessary for them to at least learn basic tricks like sit, stay, lay down, etc. Animals are more disciplined when they are taught basic tricks at an early age and they also learn to become patient and tolerant. Positive reinforcement on dogs and other animals works like a charm. We have three dogs and a cat in our household and I’m proud to say that all of them knows a trick or two. Animals will do anything for food so I make sure to reward them for a job well done. No matter how challenging it is to train pets, it’s always a rewarding feeling to see them learn something new. 

Positive reinforcement means adding something immediately 
after a behavior occurs that makes the frequency of the behavior go up.

First of JULY

Image courtesy of Rappler

Hello July, Goodbye June. It's the beginning of more rainy days to come, weather we like it or not.


Just a little bit of introduction and some interesting facts about July. The month of July is the seventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of the seven months with the length of 31 days. It was named by the Roman Senate in honor of the Roman general, Julius Caesar, it being the month of his birth (source: popculturemadness.com). The middle day of the year is also the month of July, as far as theory goes. For non-leap years, the third of July happens to be the mid-point of any given year. Far more interesting is that it is the month known for the highest number of US Presidents' death. Ruby is regarded as the lucky birthstone for July, according to some beliefs that a gorgeous fine Red Ruby stone brings luck to the wearer (source: www.speakingtree.in). 

I'm not really a fan of the rainy season especially if I am running out of clothes to wear because they don't dry up anymore. On the contrary, however, there are reasons to feel optimistic on a rainy day. Rainy day bring us closer to our families,  it also has a multitude of benefits to the earth including watering wild plants and crops, humidifying the air, etc.


I don't really have expectations each month but just the same, I hope that July will bring about new adventures and excitement. New month new goals.  

Bring it on July, surprise me!