Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Microsoft denied that it has any connection with a controversial Chinese facial recognition app that rights groups say is being used by Beijing to track minority Muslims in China. The company, called SenseNets, sells facial recognition and crowd analysis technology that is designed to detect unusual behavior in large groups of people, according to its website. SenseNets suffered a data leak in February which was discovered by security researcher Victor Gevers. He revealed that personal information on 2.5 million people tracked by the company was publicly available. Gevers found that most of the records were collected in China's Xinjiang province, a region in the west of China with a large population of minority Uighur Muslims.

We have been made aware SenseNets is using our logo on its website without our permission, and we have asked for it to be removed. Microsoft spokesperson

Human rights groups say that more than 1 million Uighur Muslims have been detained in so-called "political education" camps for their perceived disloyalty to the ruling Communist Party. Various rights groups have urged the United Nations to carry out a fact-finding mission in Xinjiang. The U.S. State Department weighed in on Thursday on China's human rights violations against Muslims in Xinjiang, calling it "great shame for humanity." The Chinese government has consistently denied any wrongdoing with regard to the Uighurs. SenseNets did not respond to three attempts by CNBC this week to contact the company. Reports suggest that facial recognition is part of a wide-scale surveillance program in the region that also includes the collection of people's DNA samples. SenseNets, which is involved in the facial recognition aspect of the program, lists Microsoft on its website under its "partners" section.