China’s technology giant Tencent’s photo processing application Pitu made an official statement on Monday, claiming they would not use or archive users’ uploaded photos or personal information when promoting face swap games.
The company’s statement was an answer to public concern over the application’s recent face swap HTML5 game that went viral.
Pitu's face swap HTML5 game launched for Youth Day. /Screenshot from WeChat.
Last week, Pitu brought out a face swap game ahead of this year’s China’s Youth Day, which falls on May 4 every year to commemorate the May Fourth Movement, a patriotic movement brought about by mass student demonstrations against an unfair peace treaty against China back in 1919.
The product allowed netizens to upload their photos to Pitu to create personal portraits reminiscent of Chinese youths living a hundred years ago. In the black and white portraits generated, users could see themselves wearing qipao, student uniforms and formal suits while trying out symbolic hairstyles in trend during the revolution years.
The face swap product provided a wide array of characters and personalities for users to choose. /Screenshot from Weibo
The users were then invited to share their photos with the product’s QR code to friends on China’s major social media platforms including Weibo and WeChat.
The product was taken off the shelves by Sunday. By Monday, Pitu stated that over 1.1 billion of photos were generated during the Youth Day weekend, while over 80 million netizens provided their personal images to Tencent, Chinanews.com reported.
People concerned with data leakage and privacy infringement started questioning the application’s viral campaign over the weekend. Some law and Internet safety experts warn netizens that the application could collect and use users’ personal information including photos, location and uploading time to pinpoint users.
Some suspected users' photos could be misused. /VCG Photo
Internet safety law expert Ma Ce told Chinanews.com that similar products including pop quizzes, surveys, crowdfunding and interactive games were not designed with the technology to consciously protect users’ data. Serious consequences are expected once the developers or hackers decide to manipulate the data.
On Monday, Pitu posted an official statement on its Weibo account to clarity public’s concerns regarding user data leakage. Tencent reposted the statement.
Pitu's official statement. /Screeshot from Weibo
Netizens’ response varied. While some showed concern, others were not overly worried.
Screenshot from Weibo
“The age of mobile Internet is also an age of information leakage,” @cheshiwuyou commented.
Screenshot from Weibo
“Everyone’s been sharing their photos. I couldn’t resist!” @baihuzishaonianzhuangchenmo commented.
Screenshot from Weibo
“If you trust them you play. If not, just stay away,” @jingmi_jingwu commented.
According to China’s Cyber Security Law that went into effect last June, Internet companies need to inform users and obtain user agreement before collecting and using personal information.
