«Breaking News» Popsugar app that matches selfies with celebrities exposed personal photos, report claims

A seemingly harmless internet fad has been hit by a data leak that may make you think twice before uploading your selfie.

Popsugar developed a photo-matching app, called Twinning, that lets users upload a photo of themselves to a database, which then generates a celebrity look-a-like. 

Unfortunately for its hundreds of thousands of users, the photos can be publicly accessed via a storage bucket hosted on Amazon Web Services, according to TechCrunch.

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Popsugar developed a photo-matching app, called Twinning, that matches users to their celebrity lookalike. Unfortunately, the photos are publicly accessible via code on their site

Popsugar first launched the Twinning app in February, but it saw an uptick in usage again over the past few weeks. 

After a photo is uploaded, the app gives users a 'twinning percentage' along with a list of their top five celebrity lookalikes. 

'You might pair with a famous politician, an old-school Hollywood starlet, or a reality TV personality, and the results will vary based on which photo you upload,' the website states.  

What Popsugar doesn't mention, however, is that code on its website would allow a savvy user to easily access that storage bucket and, by extension, every selfie uploaded to it.

The twinning photos can be publicly accessed via a storage bucket hosted on Amazon Web Services. Not long after the flaw was discovered, the storage bucket was made private

The flaw in the database meant that users who chose not to share their results on social media had their selfies made public anyway. They could also be viewed via Google search

That means that even users who elected not to share their results on social media had their selfies made public anyway.

What's more, a simple Google search reveals many unsuspecting users' selfies that were uploaded to the service. 

Not long after TechCrunch spotted the flaw, Popsugar made the storage bucket private. 

The company later confirmed that the issue was due to the bucket permissions not being set up correctly, according to TechCrunch.

 While the storage bucket permissions have been resolved, that likely won't ease the concerns of users whose photos are still publicly accessible in Google images

Popsugar first launched the Twinning app in February, but it saw an uptick in usage again over the past few weeks. The permissions flaw in the storage bucket have since been resolved

While the storage bucket permissions have been resolved, that likely won't ease the concerns of users whose photos are still publicly accessible in Google images. 

The incident caps off a year filled with privacy scandals that hit the likes of Facebook, Google and other Silicon Valley giants.     

As many have pointed out since, it highlights the risks of sharing our data with seemingly innocuous services, as it's always unclear how our information will be handled, or in this case, mishandled. 

FACEBOOK'S PRIVACY DISASTERS

Facebook in late September disclosed that it had been hit by its worst ever data breach, affecting 50 million users - including those of Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.

Attackers exploited the site's 'View As' feature, which lets people see what their profiles look like to other users.  

The unknown attackers took advantage of a feature in the code called 'Access Tokens,' to take over people's accounts, potentially giving hackers access to private messages, photos and posts - although Facebook said there was no evidence that had been done.

The hackers also tried to harvest people's private information, including name, sex and hometown, from Facebook's systems. 

Facebook said it doesn't yet know if information from the affected accounts has been misused or accessed, and is working with the FBI to conduct further investigations.

However, Mark Zuckerberg assured users that passwords and credit card information was not accessed.

Facebook says it has found no evidence 'so far' that hackers broke into third-party apps after a data breach exposed 50 million users (stock image)  

As a result of the breach, the firm logged roughly 90 million people out of their accounts earlier today as a security measure.  

Facebook made headlines earlier this year after the data of 87 million users was improperly accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy. 

The disclosure has prompted government inquiries into the company's privacy practices across the world, and fueled a '#deleteFacebook' movement among consumers. 

Communications firm Cambridge Analytica had offices in London, New York, Washington, as well as Brazil and Malaysia.

The company boasts it can 'find your voters and move them to action' through data-driven campaigns and a team that includes data scientists and behavioural psychologists.

'Within the United States alone, we have played a pivotal role in winning presidential races as well as congressional and state elections,' with data on more than 230 million American voters, Cambridge Analytica claims on its website.

The company profited from a feature that meant apps could ask for permission to access your own data as well as the data of all your Facebook friends.

The data firm suspended its chief executive, Alexander Nix (pictured), after recordings emerged of him making a series of controversial claims, including boasts that Cambridge Analytica had a pivotal role in the election of Donald Trump

This meant the company was able to mine the information of 87 million Facebook users even though just 270,000 people gave them permission to do so.

This was designed to help them create software that can predict and influence voters' choices at the ballot box.

The data firm suspended its chief executive, Alexander Nix, after recordings emerged of him making a series of controversial claims, including boasts that Cambridge Analytica had a pivotal role in the election of Donald Trump.

This information is said to have been used to help the Brexit campaign in the UK.

It has also suffered several previous issues.

2013, Facebook disclosed a software flaw that exposed 6 million users' phone numbers and email addresses to unauthorized viewers for a year, while a technical glitch in 2008 revealed confidential birth-dates on 80 million Facebook users' profiles.  

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Main photo article A seemingly harmless internet fad has been hit by a data leak that may make you think twice before uploading your selfie.
Popsugar developed a photo-matching app, called Twinning, that lets users upload a photo of themselves to a database, which then generates a celebrity...

It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.

Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.

Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca





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