Is Zoom Sharing your Data?

Zoom’s Popularity and Privacy Concerns

Zoom has become one of the most widely used video conferencing platforms, with over 300 million daily meeting participants. The surge in remote work has significantly contributed to its widespread adoption. While many users appreciate its user-friendly interface and convenience, Zoom presents several privacy risks.

Past Security Issues

Privacy experts have scrutinized Zoom since 2019, when the software played a role in a webcam hacking scandal and contained a bug that let uninvited users snoop on password-protected meetings—a phenomenon now known as “Zoom-bombing.” Since then, Zoom has improved its security by removing problematic features like built-in attention tracking and enabling end-to-end encryption. However, some privacy concerns remain.

Non-Attendees May Watch Your Recordings

If you use a paid Zoom subscription, carefully manage who can access cloud recordings. This feature records meetings, generates text transcriptions, and saves active chats. While useful for attendees, other authorized company users—who may not have attended the session—can also access these recordings. To protect sensitive information, administrators can limit access to specific preapproved IP addresses.

Zoom May Share Your Information with Third Parties

In 2020, an analysis by Vice’s Motherboard revealed that Zoom shared user analytics with Facebook, even for users without Facebook accounts. Zoom later removed this feature, but its privacy policy remained unclear about data sharing with third parties. Zoom has since clarified that it does not share video, audio, or chat content with third parties for advertising purposes. However, you should still review your Zoom and device security settings, minimize permissions when possible, and keep your app updated to ensure all security patches are installed.

If you want to discuss software security and account privacy, contact us at info@optfinity.com.