A selfie filter that makes you look like a shiny figurine or a retro Bollywood star sounds fun. It also comes with risk. The viral “Nano Banana” wave—pitched as part of the Google Gemini Nano universe—has people uploading personal photos to apps and bots that promise 3D-style portraits and saree-glam transformations. Cybersecurity pros and police are now urging caution, saying the hype can blind people to what happens to their images once they leave the phone.
At the center of the buzz is a simple trade: you give an app or web tool your face, and it gives you a cinematic avatar. The results look slick, and the sharing is instant. But the path your photo takes—who receives it, where it’s stored, and how long it lives—matters far more than the glow-up on your screen.
What the ‘Nano Banana’ trend actually does
The trend uses AI image models to convert ordinary selfies into stylized 3D figurines and vintage, chiffon-draped Bollywood portraits. “Nano” refers to Google’s lightweight on-device model family, but many viral tools in this space run in the cloud. That means your uploads might leave your device and sit on external servers, including those run by third-party developers piggybacking on Google’s models or mimicking them altogether.
Google says images produced by Gemini 2.5 Flash Image include invisible SynthID watermarks and metadata to signal the content is AI-generated. That’s meant to add transparency and help platforms flag synthetic images. It’s useful, but it’s not a shield. Watermarks can degrade through cropping, upscaling, or aggressive compression, and metadata is often stripped by social networks by default. Detection tools for SynthID exist inside Google’s ecosystem and for select partners, but they aren’t broadly available to everyday users who want to verify a random image they see online.
The moderation layer isn’t perfect either. Safety filters can block harmful prompts while allowing stylized edits for figurines, but automated screening misses things in both directions. You might see a harmless request denied and a sketchy one slip through. That uncertainty is why experts keep repeating the same advice: treat any upload of your face as permanent and potentially public.
What’s fueling the viral growth? It’s not just the look. The Banana Saree variant leans on nostalgia, with cinematic backdrops, film grain, and soft-focus textures that feel shareable. Combine that with one-tap reels and you get millions of posts—and a long trail of personal photos moving through services users barely scrutinize.
Privacy, security, and the scams hiding in plain sight
Police officials, including an IPS officer in India, have warned that scammers are piggybacking on the trend. The playbook is familiar: fake “Banana AI” apps, Telegram and WhatsApp bots pretending to be official tools, and websites that ask for payment details or full photo library access before delivering results. Some are pure phishing; others bury data-sharing in vague terms. Once uploaded, your images can be stored indefinitely, reused for ads or “service improvement,” or even exploited in sextortion scams and identity fraud.
There are also quiet risks that don’t look like scams. Some services claim rights to reuse or derive new content from what you upload. Others “anonymize” data for model training, which may still include face geometry or distinctive features. Cross-border processing means your photos could be handled under weaker data-protection regimes than the one you live under. If minors’ images are involved, the stakes are higher and the legal exposure is real.
Even if you stick to trusted apps, you’re handing over context: where and when the photo was taken (via EXIF metadata), the device model, sometimes even map coordinates. Social platforms often keep engagement data—who viewed, reshared, or saved your image—which builds a richer profile than the picture alone. That profile can be used to target you with ads or, worse, to guess passwords and recovery answers.
So what should you do if you still want the look without the headache? Use a simple checklist and be ruthless about where your face goes:
- Verify the source. Download only from official app stores or the developer’s verified listing. Be wary of lookalike names and clone sites using “Gemini,” “Nano,” or “Banana.”
- Check where processing happens. On-device is safer than cloud. If cloud is required, look for a clear privacy policy that states retention limits and training opt-outs.
- Lock down metadata. Strip EXIF data (location, device, timestamps) before upload. Many photo apps can remove metadata on export; you can also screenshot and share the screenshot instead.
- Use throwaway photos. Avoid close-ups, kids’ photos, uniforms, badges, work IDs, and anything with reflective surfaces that reveal surroundings.
- Control permissions. Deny “entire camera roll” access; use “select photos only.” Turn off contact syncing and analytics where possible.
- Say no to full-body scans. The more angles you give, the easier it is to build a reusable face model or deepfake template.
- Decline subscriptions and trials. Many scam apps push free trials that turn into expensive weekly charges.
- Keep your social privacy tight. Limit who can view, download, and reshare your posts. Disable face recognition and tagging where available.
- Avoid re-uploads. Each repost to a new platform copies your data into a new silo with new rules you don’t control.
- Delete after use. If the service allows it, remove your uploads and generated outputs. Then request account deletion and confirm by email.
Legal protections exist but vary. In the EU, you can request data access and deletion under GDPR. In India, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, gives consent-based rights and obligations for data handlers, though practical enforcement is still maturing. In the US, rules are a patchwork; the FTC has pursued apps that misled users about data use. None of these safeguards undo a leak after the fact, so prevention beats remediation.
There’s also a culture shift to keep in mind. Watermarking aims to label AI content at scale, yet the incentives of viral trends push the opposite direction: faster shares, more edits, fewer checks. Creators remix, crop, and export across platforms until both watermark and context are gone. That’s how an innocent-looking portrait can end up in an unrelated meme page, a catfishing profile, or a low-grade ad for a product you’ve never heard of.
Here’s the bottom line: AI glam tools can be safe enough when you use reputable services, reduce identifiable data, and control distribution. But the moment your face hits a server you don’t manage, you’ve traded away certainty. Enjoy the art if you want it—just assume the image could outlive the trend, and act accordingly.
