The app of ZAO Photo: IC

China's information watchdog said Wednesday that a Beijing technology company must rectify and strengthen its protection of users' personal information after Zao, the company's AI-powered face-changing app, triggered privacy concerns. 

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Tuesday required Beijing-based Momo Technology to collect and use users' personal information in accordance with laws. 

The ministry also requested the company standardize the app's terms-of-use agreement and strengthen its security to better protect user's personal information. 

The ministry demanded the company further improve its assessment of safety issues of its new technologies and new businesses and take effective measures to prevent apps from being used for telecom fraud.

Zao apologized on Tuesday for controversies caused by its user agreement and pledged to modify its terms so the app would no longer store personal facial recognition information. 

The app allows users to upload their selfies and swap their faces with celebrities in video clips from films and TV dramas. 

Zao gained popularity over the weekend, but the app's original user agreement sparked concerns about how personal data was being used. 

Some internet users suggested that criminals could find ways to use the facial recognition data to commit fraud. 

A key concern in the user agreement was the clause that allowed Zao to store and use user's data without payment. 

The user agreement could not be revoked and had no end date. The company also had the right to sublicense and re-permission the data which was not limited to user's portraits, pictures, videos and their edited versions.

Zao said on Tuesday that if users delete information or cancel their accounts, the app will delete the users' information as required by regulations and rules. 

In response to some users' worries that the app could be misused by criminals to access their online payment accounts by scanning their faces, ZAO stressed the app cannot be used in such a manner.

"The face-swapping presented in the video is not your true information, although it looks similar. We don't collect any personal biological information," reads the statement. 

This is the second time that Zao has revised its terms-of-use agreement.

On Sunday, the app deleted some items in its user agreement, including the stipulation that subscribers' portraits could be freely used without payment by the app and such permission could never be revoked. The revised agreement also included a special notice stressing that the agreement is only applicable to face-swapping and will not be used for other purposes.


Newspaper headline: Face-swapping app ordered to better protect user’s personal biological data