We face an unprecedented circumstance for all means of social communication this year. With COVID-19 literally plaguing the nation and world over, the economic and educational systems had to quickly adapt. The choice they almost unanimously made, to jump to online methods of lecture/management through Zoom, feels innocuous. Unfortunately it has been known that the tech start-up, which is now becoming a household name, has little concern for their user’s privacy. Karl Bode wrote for Vice.com about how Zoom disregards its user’s privacy, particularly in how it communicates what it is sending to third parties.
In the article, Bode writes that Zoom sends a concerning amount of private data to Facebook, even if the user does not have a Facebook account. While this sounds like a run-of-the-mill aspect of a social technology, the concerning part is that Facebook is not mentioned anywhere in Zoom’s privacy notice. They are sending their user’s data to a third-party, a major one at that, without even letting the user know. While this is, as I mentioned, not entirely uncommon, the lack of narrative about the sending of said data is very concerning. Doubling the concern, the app for iOS is said to send “details on the user’s device such as the model, the time zone and city they are connecting from, which phone carrier they are using, and a unique advertiser identifier created by the user’s device which companies can use to target a user with advertisements“. Not only is that a ton of personal data, it is entirely unnecessary for the app to know this information to fulfill it’s main process, let alone send it elsewhere. When Vice reached out for comment, Zoom declined.
This is, of course, a burning topic in essentially every professional field right now. As the world is shut in doors, the show must go on. Most schools and companies have turned to Zoom as a mediator, but what amount of research was done? No one could have properly predicted the extent to which the country would shut down, but regardless there should have been a deeper search into what software schools and employers were going to subject their students and employees too. I personally have no clue if there are alternatives, better or worse than Zoom. I do know that I am not comfortable supporting an application with such blatant disregard for one’s privacy, but there is little choice, for any of the parties in this situation. Hopefully the new stories breaking about Zoom will help everyone open their eyes to how important the security of users on these platforms is, and maybe even inspire others to try their hand at creating a virtual lecture hall equivalent that respects the professors and students more than the current choice. The status quo has created an environment where everything from a social media site to a video chatting service and beyond are all expected to have access to every bit of personal information a user has. Hopefully the tide shifts and a video chat service is just that, and not a pipeline for marketing companies.
Source Article: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/k7e599/zoom-ios-app-sends-data-to-facebook-even-if-you-dont-have-a-facebook-account
Social Structures & Algorithms 