How it all began.
For many of us in the US, the world felt that it came to a screeching halt in March of 2020. Professionals stopped going to the office, students stopped going to the classroom, and our neighbors began buying concerningly large quantities of toilet paper. Most of us took up a semi-permanent residency on our couches and passed the day doomscrolling through our news feeds, waiting to see if we would get tuition reimbursements for the school that was not happening, if we would still have jobs tomorrow. Amidst one of the largest times of uncertainty I can remember, Zoom rushed in and promised that it could help.
What does Zoom know about me?
Unfortunately, Zoom probably knows more about you than you realize. Every chat, private or not, everything you have ever said, documents you share on your screen, automatically generated transcripts, and any room you have ever sat in while using the platform has been recorded and filed away in Zoom’s cloud storage.
Their terms of privacy, which most of us frantically accepted while trying to log into our first meeting, gives them this permission. Allen John of Consumer Reports (2020) wrote, “… books on the shelf, posters, or other items in your living space can reveal information that you might not want to share with some of your co-workers… And those images of your bedroom may not disappear when the conference is over; they can be stored for months or even years, and shared with people you’ve never met.” Zoom can share or sell this data with any third-party that it sees fit.
For many of us in the US, the world felt that it came to a screeching halt in March of 2020. Professionals stopped going to the office, students stopped going to the classroom, and our neighbors began buying concerningly large quantities of toilet paper. Most of us took up a semi-permanent residency on our couches and passed the day doomscrolling through our news feeds, waiting to see if we would get tuition reimbursements for the school that was not happening, if we would still have jobs tomorrow. Amidst one of the largest times of uncertainty I can remember, Zoom rushed in and promised that it could help.
Why Zoom?
Zoom quickly became the go-to application for web-based lectures, although many people, from elementary students to tenured professors, were asking themselves, why? “... Zoom really is easy to use, so much so that I’m impressed. I’ve gotten all sorts of people to use it with very little friction. People whose ideal app would have only one button, and that button would be pre-pressed. Zoom is about as close to that as you can get, and yet has powerful features under the hood for those who understand how to wield such power” (“Why Are We All Zooming,” 2020). The simplicity of the application caused many educational institutions to be drawn to Zoom when they chaotically created a rushed school-from-home framework; however, simplicity can deceiving. Ease of use, especially in a high-stress time when everyone is craving any semblance of a connection to normalcy, can cause us to forget about our privacy.
Zoom became a video-conferencing giant seemingly overnight. Zoom spent the months of February and March repeatedly breaking their own download records on the daily. According to Samantha Kelly of CNN (2020), “On Monday March 23, Zoom was downloaded 2.13 million times worldwide, up from 2.04 million the day before, according to app tracking firm Apptopia. Two months prior, the app had just under 56,000 global downloads a day.” Although many companies could only dream of the overnight success that Zoom suddenly had, it brought to light some larger privacy concerns that had been lurking in the shadows.
Zoom quickly became the go-to application for web-based lectures, although many people, from elementary students to tenured professors, were asking themselves, why? “... Zoom really is easy to use, so much so that I’m impressed. I’ve gotten all sorts of people to use it with very little friction. People whose ideal app would have only one button, and that button would be pre-pressed. Zoom is about as close to that as you can get, and yet has powerful features under the hood for those who understand how to wield such power” (“Why Are We All Zooming,” 2020). The simplicity of the application caused many educational institutions to be drawn to Zoom when they chaotically created a rushed school-from-home framework; however, simplicity can deceiving. Ease of use, especially in a high-stress time when everyone is craving any semblance of a connection to normalcy, can cause us to forget about our privacy.
Zoom became a video-conferencing giant seemingly overnight. Zoom spent the months of February and March repeatedly breaking their own download records on the daily. According to Samantha Kelly of CNN (2020), “On Monday March 23, Zoom was downloaded 2.13 million times worldwide, up from 2.04 million the day before, according to app tracking firm Apptopia. Two months prior, the app had just under 56,000 global downloads a day.” Although many companies could only dream of the overnight success that Zoom suddenly had, it brought to light some larger privacy concerns that had been lurking in the shadows.
What does Zoom know about me?
Unfortunately, Zoom probably knows more about you than you realize. Every chat, private or not, everything you have ever said, documents you share on your screen, automatically generated transcripts, and any room you have ever sat in while using the platform has been recorded and filed away in Zoom’s cloud storage.
Their terms of privacy, which most of us frantically accepted while trying to log into our first meeting, gives them this permission. Allen John of Consumer Reports (2020) wrote, “… books on the shelf, posters, or other items in your living space can reveal information that you might not want to share with some of your co-workers… And those images of your bedroom may not disappear when the conference is over; they can be stored for months or even years, and shared with people you’ve never met.” Zoom can share or sell this data with any third-party that it sees fit.
So what do I do?
Keep your camera off. Keep your mic muted. Choose a neutral, non-personalized background through Zoom’s background-changing feature if you have a boss like mine that requires you to turn on your camera.
Knowing what data of yours is being collected is the first step to figuring out how to stop it. Collaboratively, Zoom users can petition to have more obvious consent features built into Zoom, such as one that would require you to acknowledge that you’re about to be recorded. In the meantime, though, I urge you to remain vigilant of everything that you do on and off-screen during a Zoom meeting because it could be saved and shared for years.
Keep your camera off. Keep your mic muted. Choose a neutral, non-personalized background through Zoom’s background-changing feature if you have a boss like mine that requires you to turn on your camera.
Knowing what data of yours is being collected is the first step to figuring out how to stop it. Collaboratively, Zoom users can petition to have more obvious consent features built into Zoom, such as one that would require you to acknowledge that you’re about to be recorded. In the meantime, though, I urge you to remain vigilant of everything that you do on and off-screen during a Zoom meeting because it could be saved and shared for years.
References:
Kingsley-Hughes, A. (2020, March 26). Why are we all Zooming and not Skyping? ZDNet. https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-are-we-all-zooming-and-not-skyping/
Kelly, S. M. CNN Business. (2020, March 27). Zoom’s massive “overnight success” actually took nine years. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/27/tech/zoom-app-coronavirus/index.html
St. John, A. (2020, March 30). Zoom Calls Aren’t As Private As You May Think. Consumer Reports. https://www.consumerreports.org/video-conferencing-services/zoom-teleconferencing-privacy-concerns/
Kingsley-Hughes, A. (2020, March 26). Why are we all Zooming and not Skyping? ZDNet. https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-are-we-all-zooming-and-not-skyping/
Kelly, S. M. CNN Business. (2020, March 27). Zoom’s massive “overnight success” actually took nine years. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/27/tech/zoom-app-coronavirus/index.html
St. John, A. (2020, March 30). Zoom Calls Aren’t As Private As You May Think. Consumer Reports. https://www.consumerreports.org/video-conferencing-services/zoom-teleconferencing-privacy-concerns/
Comments
Post a Comment