What We Know About Zoom's AI Privacy Policy
Zoom has come under fire following recent changes to its terms of service that grant the video conferencing platform broad rights to use customer data for training its artificial intelligence models. The update has sparked intense criticism from privacy advocates and users concerned about how their personal information could be leveraged to improve Zoom's AI services.
Zoom's Growth During the Pandemic
Zoom became the video conferencing app of choice early in the pandemic, with its daily meeting participants skyrocketing from 10 million in December 2019 to 300 million by April 2020. The company's revenue quadrupled in 2020 as businesses, schools, and social groups flocked to its services. But as pandemic restrictions have eased, Zoom's growth has slowed significantly. Its stock price has dropped over 80% from pandemic highs.
Seeking new sources of revenue, Zoom has invested heavily in AI features. It recently introduced automated meeting summaries that use speech recognition to transcribe meetings and identify key discussion points. Zoom has also rolled out AI-powered tools that can suggest responses in team messaging channels.
Updated Terms Grant Broad Access to Customer Data
In July, Zoom updated its terms of service to establish expansive rights to access user data to develop and improve its AI technologies. The updated terms state that by using Zoom, customers consent to the company collecting, maintaining, processing, and sharing their "Service Generated Data."
This encompasses diagnostic data, product usage metrics, technical telemetry information, and other forms of operational data generated through customers' use of Zoom. The terms make clear Zoom can leverage this data to train its machine learning and AI algorithms.
Backlash Over Deceptive Practices
Digital rights organizations and lawmakers immediately criticized Zoom's updated terms. They argued the changes violate Zoom's 2021 privacy settlement with the FTC, which prohibited the company from misrepresenting its data practices to users.
The Open Rights Group, a digital privacy advocacy organization, has cautioned that Zoom's choice to introduce the features through a complimentary trial and urge users to "opt in" made the update “more alarming”.
Additionally, Research group Data & Society said the policy "raised the level of discomfort that so many people have in recognizing that our laws don’t protect us against any kind of misuse of our data."
Questions Around Obtaining Meaningful Consent
Zoom maintains that it only uses customer content like meeting recordings to improve AI if users opt in to certain features. However, privacy experts say Zoom's process for obtaining consent to access customer content also appears inadequate.
For example, Zoom automatically enables certain AI features, like meeting summaries, by default when users initiate sessions. Users must then opt out of allowing their content to be used for AI training, however this opt-out is buried and not readily visible to many users.
Implications for Zoom Users
For Zoom's millions of individual, business, and organizational users, the policy changes mean the platform can leverage data on how they use Zoom to improve its AI services without their clear, informed consent.
This has already led some users, like open-source research group Bellingcat, to cancel their Zoom accounts entirely. Others have voiced hesitation to rely on Zoom until it revises its terms around AI data sharing.
The controversy shows that as AI permeates digital platforms, guarantees of individual privacy and control over personal data remain elusive. For Zoom to regain trust, it must prioritize transparency and provide users meaningful control over how their information is used.
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Sources:
https://www.adweek.com/programmatic/privacy-experts-remain-skeptical-of-zooms-updated-ai-policy/
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66430429
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/07/zoom-ai-tools-trained-using-some-customer-data.html
https://cybernews.com/privacy/zoom-revises-ai-service-terms/
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/zoom-ai-privacy-tos-terms-of-service-data-rcna98665
https://www.newsweek.com/zoom-denies-artificial-intelligence-theory-update-1818177
https://slate.com/technology/2023/08/zoom-ai-privacy-business-pandemic.html
https://venturebeat.com/ai/freedom-of-choice-how-recent-zoom-ai-policy-changes-betrayed-consumer-trust/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/08/zooms-privacy-tweaks-stoke-fears-that-its-calls-will-be-used-train-ai/