Chinese face-swapping app sparks privacy concerns soon after hugely popular release
- ZAO allows users to superimpose their faces on images of famous actors
- But a clause allowing developer to retain images and sell them to third parties is swiftly removed from user agreement after privacy concerns raised
A face-swapping app that went viral on Chinese social media over the weekend sparked a privacy controversy within hours of its debut.
Just take a selfie and choose footage from a classic film or soap opera on the app, and a user can superimpose his or her face on any actor playing any role they like.
But after generating huge interest in its first two days of circulation, users soon learned that the pictures of their faces were no longer under their control.
Since its debut on Friday, hashtags with the name ZAO have had more than 8 million views on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter. It had meanwhile zoomed to No 1 on the free entertainment app list in the Apple App Store as of Sunday.
However, almost immediately after it was released, users, lawyers and industry insiders began to question a clause in the app’s user agreement.