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Warner urges caution with FaceApp

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner issued an “urgent public notice” to state residents Thursday in connection with the popular FaceApp.

Secretary of State Mac Warner

Warner said the app, which edits and alters photographs to make you look older. has raised privacy and security concerns.Warner said FaceApp was developed by a Russian programmer and could be a way to reach a user’s private information.

“The Russians and other bad actors around the world are doing these sort of things to gain access to our social media networks and once they’re inside of it there’s no telling what they are going to do with it,” Warner said.

FaceApp has quickly become one of the most popular apps in the world. Forbes reported Thursday the app now has access to the photographs of 150 million people. Warner said the app touches all the right buttons.

“These are the sort of things that play on the human emotions to get us to click on something real quick. It could be fear, it could be fun, it could be social esteem, you want to be the first to have something,” he said. “All it is is a gimmick to get us to click and then they are inside our system.”

Warner said if you’ve already downloaded FaceApp you should probably stop using it until more is known about it.

“What we can is at least stop it, just don’t go any further and if you haven’t clicked on it I’d just stay away from it if I were you,” Warner said. “You just don’t know who is on the other end of this thing. In the meantime, until some technological experts get behind it to see just what the extent of it is, the best thing is to exercise caution.”