You may have noticed that your social media feed is recently flooded with photos of your friends from the popular photo editing and face swap app, Pitu.
Pitu is a photo editing app that gives users access to a wide array of tools, stickers, and filters to help them modify or “beautify” their photos. But what users are downloading the app for are the filters that let them insert or swap their faces inside tons of images and reimagine themselves as well-known characters such as the cast from Game of Thrones!
It also includes the “Youth Portraits from My Past Life” filter where users would be in a vintage portrait from the 1910s to 1920s and wearing traditional Chinese clothes. The said filter was released to commemorate the anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, an “an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement” which saw thousands of college students protesting against the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.
With Pitu, users can transform themselves into different characters—be it an ancient Chinese woman, a K-pop star, a graduate or a high school student, or even a fairy! The mobile app has been widely popular in China since last year and now Pinoys can’t help but try it for themselves.
https://twitter.com/jendeukiekie/status/1010487325380378624
I tried the Pitu app on Kyungsoo and the results are: pic.twitter.com/zl47SnUqLb
— Peachy_Dio 🍑 (@Peachy_Dio) June 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/uniktae/status/1010863637454413824
Pitu app version of our blythe ❤@iamandrea_b pic.twitter.com/wtVbGx56Jj
— βřîľľαń+$ 👸🏻 (@C3XjYhrUKWheBci) June 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/mxrrxyxl/status/1010528305840181249
Thank you pitu app 😂 pic.twitter.com/BHYnAq0hlR
— stelle (@stellaree1996) June 24, 2018
https://twitter.com/jay_theVerdin/status/1010715067187265537
https://twitter.com/marygerardann_/status/1010792786084311040
But some people are warning others about its potential security threat.
Compared to other photo editing applications, Pitu gains more access to your personal data, including your browser history, phone calls and contacts, your location, etc. This goes the same for those popular quiz apps on social media that show you how you’d supposedly look like as the opposite sex.
With recent events of data leakage and privacy infringement such as what happened to Facebook, some people are alarmed that apps like Pitu might be a platform to collect and use users’ personal information.
According to CGTN, Pitu has already released a statement to clarity public’s concerns regarding user data leakage. In accordance to China’s Cyber Security Law that went into effect last June, “Internet companies need to inform users and obtain user agreement before collecting and using personal information.”
Would you risk your personal data to look cute in these pictures?
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