Meitu has officially gone viral, thanks to the selfie-loving crowd who are naturally drawn to new imaging experiences in their daily pursuit for the perfect self-portrait. Unfortunately, the app may be compromised based on the amount of user data it collects as well as some suspicious codes found to be lurking under the hood.
Meitu's Selfie Anime Filter
Meitu's popularity is attributed to its capability to transform selfies and pictures of other people into anime characters. The app uses a proprietary face detection technology similar to what Facebook has recently introduced to overlay an image. This can also be seen in the filter concept that other apps such as Snapchat offer.
It is quite cool, and you can even share the output so the world can appreciate and laugh at the character you have become.
Meitu has been in China as early as 2008, and it has gone viral in that part of the world, boasting more than a billion installations and 6 billion images created on a monthly basis. When the photo app went public in Hong Kong last December, it got an insane $4.6 billion valuation.
What's Wrong With Meitu?
As Meitu increasingly propagate outside of China, some users have noticed several red flags that indicate the potential risks its users are exposed to.
Upon installation, for example, it asks an unusually long list of permissions. These include full network access and the ability to change the device settings. Meitu will also collect your MAC address, local IP, and info on running apps, among others. It will also be able to read data from your storage and could even delete files.
All these permissions are crucial because aside from the ability to read personal data, Meitu will also be able to know key details about your device. For example, Jonathan Zdziarski, a security expert, was able to discover suspicious codes in Meitu's iOS variant, which can purportedly determine information such as whether an iPhone or iPad has been jailbroken, the carrier used, and the unique identity of the device.
User Privacy Concerns
Other sources also claimed that Xiamen Meitu Technology Co., Ltd., Meitu's developer is already sending your IMEI information to servers located in China.
Just to let you guys know that photo app that makes you look an anime is sending you IMIE to several servers in China. https://t.co/dQdroq5qhA
— FourOctets (@FourOctets) January 19, 2017
Some fear that the information collected are turned over to the Chinese government for the purpose of compliance to a new law, which mandates app developers to identify individual users so that they are quickly prevented from uploading restricted contents.
There are also speculations that Meitu is collecting a huge amount of its users' data so it can sell them to companies for targeted advertising.
Whatever the case is, the type and amount of data collected are unarguably massive, raising privacy concerns that need to be addressed. So far, Meitu's publisher has not released any statement in response to the issue.
