The app, which has become popular in Brazil, arrives with a proposition that is the opposite of Instagram's: to be real. With a name that literally means just that, BeReal is a photo app where editing or the use of filters is not allowed, and where it is not possible to see how many friends each user has on the platform.
Every day, at random times, the app prompts users to post a real-time photo, creating a record, within 2 minutes and without edits, of what each person is doing at that moment. Although posting is not mandatory, users who do not post their photo within the specified time will not have access to their friends' photos.
The platform aims, with this proposition, to show life as it is, without edits or masks, a proposal that has been gaining more and more followers in Brazil. The big question is: how does this platform handle its users' data?
Points that should be carefully analyzed in the application.
Jeff Williams, global head of security at the online protection firm Avast, conducted a thorough analysis of privacy policies from the app and discovered some points that require attention regarding how the app handles the issue of privacy and data protection personal, which are:
- Your photos will be available to the platform for use for 30 years.
Jeff discovered, after analyzing the platform's terms of service, that when a user agrees to use the application, they also agree that the platform may store their photos and use them whenever it wants for a period of 30 years. "Imagine your most embarrassing and awkward moment being attached to an advertising campaign for your friends or to content that goes viral and attracts millions of viewers.""Jeff said."
“Thirty years is generally a ‘forever’ in internet time and potentially covers more than 60% of a person’s professional career years. This appears to be a particularly long grant of rights with exceptionally broad usage permissions.”, he emphasizes.
- The lack of moderation regarding what is shared on the app.
Because it doesn't call itself a social network but rather "a hosting company," whether it intends to or not, the platform avoids the situation by remaining oblivious to what users post, which can include hate speech and other types of disturbing content.
In Jeff's analysis: "I don't think BeReal will even come close to that level of investment. So, the likely outcome will be that everything bad you've already heard about the lack of content moderation on Facebook, you'll see even more of on BeReal.".
- Access to the location, which comes configured by default.
On the platform, if you want to disable your location, you will need to do so manually, as this access is enabled by default.
“We strongly recommend that users disable geolocation, especially when sharing photos in the Discovery section. The Discovery section displays photos to users outside their friend group and can be accessed by any user of the app. Real-time location can be misused for stalking or profiling.” Jeff warns.
- Third party cookies
O beer allow third-party cookieslike its competitors Facebook and InstagramThis is done as a way to improve the user experience in the application, but it also increases the potential for misuse of personal data.
The fact is that the BeReal app requires certain precautions, just like its competitors, but that doesn't mean you can't use it if you want. Jeff highlights the importance of taking steps to protect your security before deciding whether to grant access to your data to another app: "Do I really want another corporation to have access to so much information about me?", "Is belonging to a group worth exposing myself and others in potentially dangerous ways?", or "What is the impact of this publication on my work, home, or the lives of my family members?".
