this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2023
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Privacy

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Zoom's updated policy states that all rights to Service Generated Data are retained solely by Zoom. This extends to Zoom's rights to modify, distribute, process, share, maintain, and store such data "for any purpose, to the extent and in the manner permitted under applicable law.", including AI and Machine Learning.

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[–] RagnarokOnline@reddthat.com 133 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The real trouble here is got vague the term “user generated content” is.

Does that include recordings of meetings? Does that include files or messages over chat during calls? Does it include names of those attending calls?

With it being so vague, you have to assume the worst possible case, which sucks for anyone who uses Zoom.

[–] Jarmer@slrpnk.net 75 points 1 year ago (2 children)

yeah I think it means ... ALL OF IT.

also double sucks because a lot of people have no choice but to use zoom. jobs require it.

[–] chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

They wont for long if their legal departments see that. We already arent allowed to record meetings with zoom where i work, and are going to teams.

Its the people who lose in this one

[–] gelberhut@lemdro.id 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you have to use it for work, it is not your issue, but your employer's.

Still, I will be surprised if zoom will apply this rule to corporate customers.

[–] NerfHerder@lemm.ee 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yeah, but if you're interviewing for a job, it IS your problem, no?

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[–] Zeth0s@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

They can't be that stupid. Many companies that use zoom do it to discuss with clients, in conversations that are expected to be private and confidential. Training an ai might mean leaking some of this content, unless it's an AI used exclusive internally at zoom. They better not use recording of meetings, unless they are ready to pay lawyers for years

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[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago (20 children)

Unrelated, you’re my favourite game ever and I love you and miss you and I’d pay so much for a pre-re server without a cash shop at maybe 2-5k total players.

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[–] ForestOrca@kbin.social 89 points 1 year ago (3 children)

During the early part of 2020 I moved my classes onto Zoom. Because of this change, I'll be moving my video conferencing elsewhere. What's with companies destroying themselves while attempting to maximize profits. Just another reddifugee on kbin.social. SMH.

FOSS Zoom Alternatives -

https://itsfoss.com/open-source-video-conferencing-tools/

https://www.makeuseof.com/open-source-video-conferencing-software/

https://fosspost.org/zoom-alternatives/

[–] AdalwinAmillion@pawb.social 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The term "enshittification" comes to mind.

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 year ago

The term “enshittification” is as common on Lemmy as “play stupid games…” is on Reddit.

It’s a much less stupid word/phrase, though, so that’s fine with me.

[–] kobra@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

thanks for sharing, looks like some good alternatives here.

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[–] jacktherippah@lemdro.id 69 points 1 year ago

Man the modern internet is a privacy nightmare.

[–] itsgroundhogdayagain@lemmy.ml 69 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm sure companies will be interested in hearing this, especially those with regulatory requirements.

[–] PeachMan@lemmy.one 40 points 1 year ago

Yeah WTF? Companies that have medical data, other PII.... they're going to have to cancel their Zoom contracts right? I guess that's up to their lawyers to interpret/decide.

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[–] pensivepangolin@lemmy.world 58 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Considering courts have been using Zoom since COVID…I am dying to see what happens. Will Zoom clarify that it doesn’t collect/utilize meeting recordings to train AI? Is it going to exactly that and force anyone conducting sensitive business to find a new platform?

This feels like a remarkably bad move, both for privacy and for Xoom’s own business concerns, unless I’m missing something.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (4 children)
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[–] droans@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Won't be an issue for courts. In fact, the original text prediction software came from the Enron Corpus - a trove of emails gathered by the FERC during their lawsuit against Enron.

Now, companies will absolutely not be friendly about this. The number one reason most companies are hesitant to AI is because they don't want to risk giving sensitive data to an outside company.

[–] HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Remember: the corporate meetings and university lectures are the tip of the iceberg of the kind of data Zoom has on people.

Zoom is used by teenage couples to call each other and hang out, which might turn into discussing sexual themes as teenagers dating often do.

Zoom is used by general-care doctors when their patients describe the rash on their anus.

Zoom is used by psychiatrists and therapists talking to their patients during some of the most vulnerable and precarious times of their lives.

Zoom is used by lawyers talking to their clients in all kind of cases, criminal, civil, divorce/family, inheritance, etc.

Zoom was used by actual fucking courts to hold actual fucking criminal trials. Like bruh the fucking US judiciary department couldn't have self-hosted one of the many open source and E2EE solutions?

The fact that they can do this with no oversight or regulatory bodies intervening is utterly ridiculous. Zoom has probably some of the most sensitive data of people's lives. It is not a social media platform where people know that they shouldn't put too sensitive information on, it was literally intended and marketed for people to use for sensitive communications. They shouldn't even be keeping any amount of data after the call ends, IMO, but using it to train an AI (to presumably sell later) is utterly morally bankrupt, and so are the regulatory agencies and lawmakers who could have intervened. Fuck you Zoom, fuck you FCC/FTC/whoever handles data privacy in the US. You want to ban TikTok because of its "national security implications" but don't bat an eye when it's a US company doing something far worse huh? Not implying I like TikTok, but TikTok doesn't have access to live court trials or doctor-patient discussions.

Yes, we shouldn't have used Zoom in the first place. But that ship has sailed and most people were forced to use it against their will if their company/university/doctor/lawyer/judge decides to use it, and/or they did not realize the terrible data security/privacy implications of using it. It's entirely unhelpful to victim blame and go "well you shouldn't have used Zoom then! Sucks for you" as I see so many people in the FLOSS/privacy community doing. Additionally, that also does not address the actual societal/legislative issues of them being allowed to keep that information and use it for profit.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

Zoom was used by actual fucking courts to hold actual fucking criminal trials. Like bruh the fucking US judiciary department couldn’t have self-hosted one of the many open source and E2EE solutions?

It should be said that many business customers do use a self-hosted version of Zoom. I couldn't say for sure if every court did, but major government bodies definitely used something more than the free package, which come with different T&Cs.

Additionally, that also does not address the actual societal/legislative issues of them being allowed to keep that information and use it for profit.

This is the big issue in online user data. In no other instance in life can someone take something without offering anything in return. Yes, websites are usually free, but Microsoft collect your data from the software you already pay them for. Just like you can't build and sell a car without paying for the nuts and bolts, there needs to be clear legal infrastructure to prevent data businesses from getting away with taking everyone's data for free and using it to develop products for pure profit.

[–] riesendulli@discuss.tchncs.de 44 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] socphoenix@midwest.social 13 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Do you know if they support disabling things like auto-equalization of audio or changing the bitrate? I use zoom for music lessons because they’re the only one I’ve ever found that will let me do that, which sucks because zoom really isn’t that great of an app

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[–] ForestOrca@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Yay Jitsi!!

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Last year, my whole company switched to jitsi.

Solves 90% of our use cases and open-sourced enough to expand on it.

[–] Num10ck@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

do you host it in house? what compression does it use?

[–] mikarv@someone.elses.computer 15 points 1 year ago

@skilledtothegills would be forbidden for them to train on actual content from calls under EU law, as it would be in breach of the ePrivacy Directive (read alongside something called the European Electronic Communications Code, which gives similar obligations to 'over-the-top' providers as to classic telecoms). Not that US tech firms have a great history of adhering to EU law.

[–] Kaidao@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is terrible for privacy, but not surprising at all. For enterprise, the target market for Zoom, I imagine this doesn’t matter much.

I don’t know anyone that uses Zoom for personal use. And if you do, why?

[–] chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

It matters more. Nobody wants trade secrets being used to train some ai.

[–] scytale@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

I'd wager enterprise customers wouldn't want this either, and I won't be surprised if they demand to explicitly remove that clause on their contracts. Imagine all the highly confidential info and trade secrets being exchanged on company zoom meetings that can be harvested for AI use.

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[–] sverit@feddit.de 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does anyone know if that's ok with the DGPR in Europe?

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

*GDPR

And, no, it's not okay.

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 year ago

That’s a very zoomy thing to do given what we’ve seen the company do so far. If they can figure out a new way profit from stabbing you in the back, they absolutely will go for it.

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