Online app Zoom sued for sharing personal data with Facebook

The online working and learning application Zoom is especially popular during the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: zoom.us

Zoom Video Communications has faced increased scrutiny over its privacy practices in recent days, as New York’s top prosecutor conducts an investigation into the company’s security practices. In California, Zoom has also been sued for allegedly providing users’ personal data to outside companies, including Facebook, without properly informing customers.

According to CBS News, the latest allegation shows that Zoom's software reported to Facebook whenever a Zoom user logged in. More specifically, after a user logged in, Zoom provided Facebook with customer information, including the device the user used to access Zoom, the device model, device, or the device's unique advertising identifier. The notice from the lawsuit states that the unique advertising identifier allows companies to target users through advertising. Zoom's management has acknowledged this data sharing and said that changes and adjustments are being made.

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said the company’s leadership “became aware” of the data sharing with Facebook last week. The sharing began after Zoom gave users the option to log in using Facebook’s software development kit, or SDK. Customer privacy is extremely important to the company, so Zoom decided to remove Facebook’s SDK from its customer app and reconfigure the feature, Yuan said.

According to the lawsuit announcement, Zoom was paid by Facebook for this data sharing activity - although the amount was not disclosed. However, Aparna Bawa, Zoom's Chief Legal Officer, affirmed that Zoom "has never sold user data in the past and has no intention of selling user data in the future."

It should be noted that Zoom has suddenly become especially popular and used when many companies, businesses, and offices around the world have adopted work-from-home and remote online working policies to avoid the spread of the disease. Even online classes are also popular with this application. While the Covid-19 pandemic is causing difficulties for companies around the world, even facing the risk of bankruptcy, Zoom is an exception. This company is a rare number of businesses that have grown remarkably in the current period.

Wall Street has also taken notice of the sudden and growing popularity of Zoom Video Communications. While major stock indexes such as Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq have all recorded historic declines, Zoom’s stock has increased by nearly 50% over the past period. This proves that investors have absolute confidence in this online meeting application./.