The Zoom video conferencing application has become very popular lately, as more and more people work from home. But you should know that there is a problem with protecting your privacy.
Last night, Vice announced that Zoom's iOS app is sending data to Facebook - even if you do not have an account on the largest social network.
Perhaps most shockingly, the company's privacy policy says nothing about this. Thus, the application does not mention anywhere that it sends your data to the social network.
Joseph Cox told its publication to Vice that every time you open the app, it sends your data to Facebook. The data includes: her model deviceyour network provider, time zone, city, and your device's unique identifier. Needless to say, all this data can be used by advertisers to serve you targeted ads.
Facebook's policy on the use of the software development kit (Software Development Kit or simply SDK) and pixel tracking is pretty clear: a website or app that uses it should explicitly state that your data is shared with third parties. In addition, it should also have an option to block tracking. The Zoom app doesn't mention anything about all of this.
Last week, the non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for digital rights pointed out some of the risks to protect our privacy using Zoom products. The publication stated that your company's administrators can access a lot of your information during the duration μιας συνάντησης, όπως: πληροφορίες για την συσκευή, την διεύθυνση IP και το λειτουργικό σύστημα που χρησιμοποιείτε. Επιπλέον, η εφαρμογή διαθέτει μια λειτουργία παρακολούθησης της προσοχής, η οποία είναι απενεργοποιημένη από προεπιλογή. Η συγκεκριμένη λειτουργία επιτρέπει σε αυτούς που ξεκινούν μια συνεδρία να controln whether the Zoom application window is enabled or not on desktop computers.
It may be very difficult to avoid Zoom right now, especially if your colleagues or clients use the service.
However, instead of using the app itself, you can join a meeting by opening a link in the program of your browser (on mobile or on desktop) and avoiding the app's intrusive functions.
A developer (Arkadiy Tetelman) also created a easy-to-use extension Chrome that can redirect you to the web version of the session.