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reports assert that Zoom is “leaking peoples’ rather included information about devices
email addresses and photos to strangers,” as such as the mobile OS type and version, the
Motherboard put it. device time zone, device OS, device model and
carrier, screen size, processor cores, and disk
The latter of those claims has already space.”
resulted in a pair of lawsuits being filed against
Zoom in California. The plaintiffs in those As is apparently obligatory when
complaints allege that Zoom shared personally companies address privacy issues related to
identifiable information, including users’ device their products and services, Yuan added that
models, locations, phone carriers and other customers’ privacy is “incredibly important to
information that’s useful to marketers ñ and us,” so the company has “decided to remove
that the plaintiffs would prefer not to be shared the Facebook SDK in our iOS client and have
without their express consent. reconfigured the feature so that users will
still be able to log in with Facebook via their
“Had Zoom informed its users that it would browser.”
use inadequate security measures and permit
unauthorized third-party tracking of their It’s up to each Zoom user to decide whether
personal information, users ó like plaintiff the concerns raised about Zoom’s privacy
and class members ó would not have been issues are deal-killers, or if the company’s
willing to use the Zoom App,” wrote lawyers moves to close the holes are sufficient to
representing the plaintiff class, according to allay those concerns. If the class action filed
Law.com. “Instead, plaintiff and class members against Zoom moves forward and you’re a
would have forgone using Zoom and/or user deemed to be part of the plaintiff class,
chosen a different videoconferencing product joining the lawsuit may eventually become an
that did not send their personal information to option for you, too.
Facebook, or any other third party.”
Regardless of what else lies ahead for the
Katherine Aizpuru, one of the plaintiffs’ company, Zoom’s software seems destined
attorneys, told Law.com that the issue to continue to be widely used during the
is “extremely important now, because ongoing pandemic, at least for the weeks
businesses, families and individuals are ahead, as more country, state and municipal
increasingly connecting via Zoom.” governments issue new shelter in place orders
or extend those already in place.
“But it would be important even if many
states were not under stay at home orders,” While the FCC waiver was due to expire on
Aizpuru added. “Protecting consumer privacy June 1, 2020, it’s safe to assume Inteliquent
is only becoming more important as more of has exercised it’s renewal option until further
our lives move online.” notice.

Zoom hasn’t responded directly to the Zoom meeting image by Zoom, provided in
allegations in the lawsuits, but it did publish a the company’s media kit
blog post explaining the company has changed
the way its software interacts with Facebook.
Gene Zorkin has been covering legal and
political issues for various adult publications
“We originally implemented the ‘Login with
Facebook’ feature using the Facebook SDK (and under a variety of different pen names)
for iOS (Software Development Kit) in order since 2002.
to provide our users with another convenient
way to access our platform,” Zoom Founder
and CEO Eric S. Yuan wrote in the blog post. Reprinted with permission from YNOT
“However, we were made aware on Wednesday,
March 25, 2020, that the Facebook SDK was
collecting device information unnecessary for
us to provide our services. The information
collected by the Facebook SDK did not include
information and activities related to meetings
such as attendees, names, notes, etc., but

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