Zoom, a communications platform used for audio and video conversations, quietly updated its terms of service July 27th and contains an extremely insane, invasive section.

Section 10.2 (Service Generated Data; Consent to Use) says customers consent “to Zoom’s access, use, collection, creation, modification, distribution, processing, sharing, maintenance, and storage of Service Generated Data for any purpose.”

“For any purpose” includes artificial intelligence training and testing.

Section 10.2 continues to say, ” to the extent and in the manner permitted under applicable Law, including for the purpose of product and service development, marketing, analytics, quality assurance, machine learning or artificial intelligence (including for the purposes of training and tuning of algorithms and models), training, testing.”

In other words, Zoom users’ data can be utilized to train artificial intelligence models.

 

Section 10.4 (Customer License Grant) also raises concerns for actions Zoom can take on customer content.

The section says “you agree to grant and hereby grant Zoom a perpetual, 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 and to perform all acts with respect to the Customer Content.”

“Zoom may 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,” according to Section 10.3 (Permitted Use; Customer Content).

Zoom’s updated terms of service, although it’s unclear the exact date when the changes went into effect, raises concerns regarding inalienable rights to privacy.

Stack Diary first observed the updated terms of service, writing “this effectively allows Zoom to train its AI on customer content without providing an opt-out option, a decision that is likely to spark significant debate about user privacy and consent.”

More from Stack Diary:

Zoom justifies these actions as necessary for providing services to customers, supporting the services, and improving its services, software, or other products. However, the implications of such terms are far-reaching, particularly as they appear to permit Zoom to use customer data for any purpose relating to the uses or acts described in section 10.3.

Privacy advocates and legal experts are expected to scrutinize these updated terms closely. Many argue that they push the boundaries of what is acceptable in terms of consent, data privacy, and individual rights. While Zoom’s intentions may be focused on improving their platform and delivering better service, the breadth and depth of these changes may leave many users uncomfortable and seeking assurances about how their data is being used.

Zoom has yet to comment (added below) on the updates and potential concerns raised by these changes. As this unfolds, the debate around privacy in the digital age and the responsibility of companies in respecting user privacy continues to intensify.

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