Dear Zoom: Don’t use our data to train your AI
Red flags in Zoom’s latest terms of service update raise serious concerns over how the company plans on using our data, including how it might be used to train AI.
This update grants Zoom “a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license and all other rights required or necessary to redistribute, publish, import, access, use, store, transmit, review, disclose, preserve, extract, modify, reproduce, share, use, display, copy, distribute, translate, transcribe, create derivative works, and process Customer Content.”
Don’t spy on our calls
Zoom just released an update to its Terms of Service that has experts concerned about user privacy. Hidden behind legalese, the company is claiming the right to user data and “customer content” for machine learning and artificial intelligence. Zoom claims that this is necessary to provide and improve its software for customers. But what it really wants is permission for Zoom to use customer data however it wants, because of the profit potential of our data.
Following initial backlash, Zoom went into crisis mode, adjusting its Terms of Service and posting a blog stating that it won’t use audio or video data from calls. But these claims still contradict its Terms of Service. While zoom says they won’t collect this data without consent, it is entirely unclear how this consent will be collected, and if users will be able to opt out and still use the tool. The broad permissions granted to Zoom via this update, and the ways it could use this data—not just right now but in the future—is alarming. We don’t want a future where Zoom can listen in on our calls with family, friends, work, or school so it can train AI and build a surveillance empire.
Zoom has a history of misleading its customers. This has even led the company to get in trouble with the FTC. Yet, here we are again. Zoom is trying to mislead users, hiding significant privacy concerns within confusing policy language and conflicting statements.This is another example of why we need strong federal data privacy legislation that will actually protect us from corporate surveillance and stop companies like Zoom from harvesting and abusing our data for profit. But we also need Zoom to address these issues, and publicly state that it will not use our data to train its AI. Sign the petition, and tweet at Zoom to make these demands now.