Chinese face replacement app’criticized for providing permanently free data’

It is reported that Zao, a popular face replacement app for iOS in China, has been criticized for privacy concerns and has announced a policy amendment.

Zhao is an app that lets you post on social media by replacing an actor’s face with your own face in a movie or TV scene. It is an application of deep fake technology that uses artificial intelligence to change faces and voices in photos and videos.

Users can quickly fix their face on Leonardo DiCaprio’s face by using a picture or taking a picture, such as making an eye wink and opening a mouth according to the on-screen instructions. Zhao, released on August 30 (local time), quickly rose to the top of the free app rankings when it was released on the Chinese App Store. However, as it was discovered that there is a technology in the privacy policy that allows you to permanently provide your own face data for free, transfer it to an irrevocable third party, or re-license it, negative reviews are poured out and the rating is 2 out of 5. Plunged.

In case you haven’t heard, #ZAO is a Chinese app which completely blew up since Friday. Best application of’Deepfake’-style AI facial replacement I’ve ever seen.

Here’s an example of me as DiCaprio (generated in under 8 secs from that one photo in the thumbnail) ? pic.twitter.com/1RpnJJ3wgT

— Allan Xia (@AllanXia) September 1, 2019

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

The company that released the app (Changsha Shenduronghe Network Technology) said it understood the privacy concerns, and promised that it would take a little while to fix issues that were not considered. Subsequently, the privacy policy was revised. The revised face data is used only for the purpose of improving the app, otherwise, user consent is sought in advance. It also said that when a user deletes a photo from the app, the material is also deleted from the server.

Even last July, there was suspicion that FaceApp, a popular app that makes face photos younger or older, is sending all photos to a cloud server without user permission. However, in Hong Kong, protesters wore masks because of concerns about their face being identified by the authorities. It may have been the timing when the weight of the face data was recognized. Related information can be found here .