ToonMe, the app that can turn you into a Pixar character, is the most popular on social media right now. According to its general conditions of use, however, it collects a significant amount of personal data.
Credit: ToonMe
A daily his new trend on social networks. Lately, an application is all the rage: ToonMe. Its principle is simple, but terribly effective: from a photo provided by the user, the application is able to redraw it cartoon style. His sudden popularity made mentions jump to Pixar on Twitter, one of the transformation styles offered.
If its concept resembles that of FaceApp, which ages the face with incredible realism, the enthusiasm that the application arouses is at least equal. This is indeed classified number 1 in downloads on the Play Store. Free, it offers for the modest sum of € 4.99 per month “Pro” features, without going into detail about them.
ToonMe collects more personal data than you think
Originally, we find the Chinese company Linerock Investments LTD, specializing in photo editing applications. Photo Lab, the most popular of these, has been uploaded over 100 million times. Development is entrusted to a Russian studio called Vicman.
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Where the shoe pinches is, unsurprisingly, at the level of the collection of personal data. Its general conditions of use thus mention the harvest by name of the user, of his mail address or to be “Information on social networks”.
That’s not all. By using ToonMe on your smartphone, you authorize the app to access to photos stored on your phone. The company then reserves the right to use them “To carry out marketing activities”, namely studying them to offer personalized advertising. The latter nevertheless undertakes not to sell them to a third party.
However, there is a solution if you want to protect your personal data. His website, completely free, is content to carry out the transformations without collecting any information. It is not necessary to create an account either, but to simply post a photo.
Many people use the service of Toonme app to transform into cartoon character. As always with these apps (or the quizzes to find out which Harry Potter character you are, you see the genre), read the T & Cs before going… pic.twitter.com/NRubrbpiok
– Bruce Benamran (@epenser) January 13, 2021
