If this tweet is to be believed, Zao does an astonishingly good job of swapping faces:
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 The app uses the same artificial intelligence technique deployed by deepfakes to swap faces in photos and videos. Bloomberg noted that, alarmingly, the previous version of the app had a clause that gave full rights to the company to use your photos as “free, irrevocable, permanent, transferable, and relicense-able” property. It meant the company could use and send your photos to a third-party without your specific authorization. After a ton of outrage and negative reviews on the App Store, the app’s developers have removed the clause and said it has deleted all previously uploaded photos from users.
— Matthew Brennan (@mbrennanchina) September 1, 2019 In a statement on Weibo, the company said it will soon release fixes to mend privacy concerns: Just a few hours ago, WeChat has blocked the app. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment, and we’ll update the story if the company gets back to us. In July, another AI-based face effect app, FaceApp, was the center of controversy as one of its clauses allowed the company to use and share consumers’ photos with third-party. Later, it clarified that it doesn’t sell any user data to third party and gave an option to request data removal too. While these apps look quite fun to use, we’ve seen repeatedly that they use hidden clauses to manipulate user data and put their privacy at risk. If you’re going to use apps that ask for your pictures or personal information, be sure to read their terms and conditions before using them.
