2. The NewProfilePic allegations are false, but I wouldn’t trust uploading my photos online anywhere anyway stories

A few days after the Daily Mail article and the Snopes rebuttal, the controversy itself became the story, with headlines such as this one on CNET, "New Profile Pic App: Innocent Photo Fun, or a Privacy Risk?" These “more balanced” stories typically described the initial accusations, the debunking by Snopes or other fact-checking sites, and then added a perspective of a third-party security expert who tells us that uploading photos to any site inherently has risks.

For the casual consumer, these more “both sides of the equation” mainstream press stories might have hurt the NewProfilePic app the most – where there’s smoke there’s fire, isn’t it? – no matter Linerock’s side of the story, which stresses that they’re just an international app developer that happens to have Russian roots, all their data are stored on Azure and AWS servers in the US, and their privacy and security policies are typical for any photo app, if not more stringent.

3. The we're fighting back story

If the debunking of wild accusations doesn’t work, there is not much else a photo app developer can do than to mobilize their user base to speak up. And that’s exactly what the company has now embarked on: under the motto “we need your help” it has started a campaign to encourage its users to create a buzz for their facts.pho.to site, which has seen 5K shares/likes/comments so far.

Will it be enough? We’ll find out. Linerock has faced and survived wild accusations before, such as when rumors spread in Bangladesh a couple of years ago that Linerock was a US (!) company affiliated with the CIA and that their Photo Lab app contained spyware. At that time it didn’t stop Photo Lab to become the #1 app in several surrounding countries, including India.

But this time the company is battling dual sensitivities: growing concerns about photo privacy & security in general, coupled with widespread concerns about the Putin regime’s long arms.

This double whammy of sensitivities might take the company a while to absorb. But innovative entrepreneurs tend to bounce back after major setbacks and do so often in unforeseen directions. I expect no less from the innovative folks at Linerock!

But in the short term, there are valuable lessons to be drawn for any photo startup that might end up in similar hot waters.

The main one: no matter how rampant any complot theory about your apps or company might circulate online, you have to act fast to quench them. As we’ve seen with Linerock, once the conspiracy stories are picked up by mainstream tabloids, it’s an uphill battle to set the story straight in the court of public opinion. (For the details of how Linerock responded and the lessons they've drawn from recent events, read this in-depth Instagram carousel post from Linerock’s founder, Victor Sazhin).

Insta360. 360 drone camera. Finding it hard to operate your drone camera when you need to focus on navigating its flight? Capture the footage in 360 and edit the footage later in post, or even make versions from different angles from the same original footage! Rather than repeating GoPro’s mistake to try developing a drone themselves, 2018 Visual 1st Best of Show Award winner Insta360 has released Sphere, a connected set of 2 lightweight 180 degree cameras that straps around the body of the DJI Air 2 and Air 2S drones and enables the drone photographer to capture 360 stitched aerial footage. Nice touch: by strapping around the drone, the drone itself won't be visible in the imagery. The camera system shoots 5.7K resolution at either 24, 25 or 30 fps. And all that hardware and software costs you a mere $429.

Google Imagen. Text to image 3.0 – DALL-E 2: here we come. How about creating an image by merely supplying a text like: “A panda making latte art”? Check out the resulting images here + read the details as to how Google Research’s Imagen project does this and how it compares with DALL-E 2.

DNP America. Action Capture camera + printer system. How to capture photos at the top of a climbing wall, or other spots where it’s impossible to position a photographer to take the photos, such as along rope courses, in theme parks or other venues? DNP’s newly announced Action Capture system includes a capture device, which the guests themselves can remotely activate, as well as a compact professional printer.

Motorola. On its way: 200MP image sensor? Lost track of what Motorola smartphones are all about these days? For one, Motorola is now owned by Lenovo. An executive of that company hinted at an upcoming announcement of a new Motorola flagship phone that will feature a 200MP image sensor, which should empower computational photography wizardry plenty of pixels to be combined for producing impressive image quality.

Xiaomi & Leica. On its way: Leica camera in Xiaomi phone? Xiaomi and Leica signed a “long-term strategic partnership” aimed at improving and boosting camera performance on Xiaomi's upcoming flagship smartphones. The first Xiaomi phone that might see the benefits of this partnership is rumored to be the Xiaomi 12 Ultra, which is set to be revealed in July. Note that Leica partnered with Huawei in the past.

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