New Chinese Deepfake App Goes Viral But Also Sparks Privacy Fears

A couple of months ago, the Russian-made app, Faceapp, experienced a resurgence with its ability to radically alter the age of people in a photo, but also created a privacy scare among its users. Recently, a China-based Deepfake app called Zao blew up over iOS and just like Faceapp, it’s causing its own set of fears.

To elaborate, Zao is a deepfake app that allows users to take their faces and lays it over the faces of popular celebrities in a select number of clips from popular movies and TV shows. The app, which is free for download, is so accurate, iPhone users who used the app were reportedly able to generate as many as eight million views through Zao-generated content. The difference between Zao and Faceapp is the way the former inserts a user’s likeness into a video, rather than simply animating a static image, just as the latter does.

The problem with Zao lies in its privacy policy. As pointed out by Bloomberg, the app’s creator, Momo, included a clause to the app that essentially gives it “free, irrevocable, permanent, transferable, and relicense-able” access to all the content generated by users of the app.

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

Suffice to say, Zao users were not in agreement with Momo’s sweeping powers over their content and soon began review-bombing the app. At the time of writing, the app’s rating currently sits at a score of 2.7 out of five; some reviews cite the earlier mentioned violation of privacy, while other reviewers felt that the app could use a few more video clips.

It didn’t take Momo long to revise its terms of service, replacing that entire line with a new term. Stating that any uploads made by Zao users will only be used to improve the company’s technology.

(Source: Techspot, Gizmodo, The Verge, Forbes, Allan Xia via Twitter)

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