ZAO

A new face swapping photo app: a new privacy controversy. It seems like an irrefutable truth or two facts that go hand in hand. It happened with FaceApp after its huge recent success (the app's second), and now it happens with ZAO, which has only been available on the App Store for a few hours for iPhone and is already doing his thing. So think twice before downloading this amazing but not very private application.

This time it is an application that, for now, is exclusively for iPhone users.The funny thing is that the launch has been recent. On September 1, the application was activated in the App Store in China, and in a few hours it managed to become viral with thousands of downloads All of this with the sole premise of change the user's face to that of a celebrity. Of course, the result is the most fun.

https://twitter.com/AllanXia/status/1168049059413643265

ZAO uses Artificial Intelligence to replace the face of an actor or actress at a key moment in a movie with that of the user. And the surprising thing is that, as in the case of FaceApp, the result attracts a lot of attention. Not only does it seem to accommodate the skin tone to the lighting and aesthetics of the film, but also the movements of the mouth and gestures. Basically, it scans our face and applies it directly to the scenes of the different movies that ZAO preloads in the application. Something better known on the Internet as DeepFake

The scores are very good. But also very funny. Can you imagine taking the lead from Leonardo DiCaprio in any of his films? This simple pretext has allowed the application to spread like wildfire among Chinese mobiles. But also that someone has read the terms and conditions of use in detail And here comes the problem.

ZAO saves your photos for advertising purposes

According to Reuters, initially there was a part of the text of terms and conditions of use that deals with the issue of permissions by the user. What is worrying here is that, by using the application, the user consents and loses the intellectual property rights over the image uploaded to the service. In addition, ZAO is allowed to use the image for marketing purposes, without specifically clarifying what they are. Although given the avalanche of criticism, the company has rushed to clarify the situation.

After several news and complaints, ZAO seems to have changed the text about the intellectual property of the images of the users of its application. Or at least will warn the user if they are used for other terms In addition, they have clarified that if the user deletes their photos from ZAO, they will also be removed from the company databases.

It's not a move that necessarily violates your privacy, but don't be surprised if your image or the resulting DeepFake video ends up as part of an advertisement in China, or elsewhere. So you have to keep this in mind if you really want to protect yourself before starting to use this application. After the changes, your photos will only be yours, and you will be able to delete them from ZAO comfortably, but the shadow of doubt is already hanging over this application

Chinese social networks begin to block ZAO

Just a few hours after its initial boom, we already have details of the decision of some Chinese social networks and web pages to block all this content produced by ZAO. This is the case of WeChat, where it is no longer allowed to share the DeepFakes of the application. And it seems to be spreading to more platforms.