Zoom Agrees To Settle A Privacy Lawsuit For $85 Million : NPR

A sign for Zoom Video Communications is pictured ahead of the company’s Nasdaq IPO in New York in 2019. The company has agreed to a preliminary settlement in a data protection lawsuit. Mark Lennihan / AP hide caption

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Mark Lennihan / AP

A sign for Zoom Video Communications is pictured ahead of the company’s Nasdaq IPO in New York in 2019. The company has agreed to a preliminary settlement in a data protection lawsuit.

Mark Lennihan / AP

Zoom will pay $ 85 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that it violated users’ privacy rights, according to a preliminary settlement filed on Saturday. The class action lawsuit filed by several Zoom users alleges that the company shared personal information with Facebook, Google and LinkedIn, allowing hackers to disrupt meetings with pornography, inappropriate language or other unsettling content in a practice called “zooming”.

The settlement is still subject to approval from U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh of San Jose, California, but if she unsubscribes, subscribers would get a 15% refund on their core subscriptions or $ 25, whichever is greater. Zoom users who haven’t paid an account can apply for $ 15. Zoom will also increase its security, commit to informing users about third-party app data sharing, and taking other measures to protect user data.

Zoom’s customer base has exploded in the wake of the pandemic. Many groups and organizations turned to the communication platform as part of work and lifestyle changes to address the restrictions of the coronavirus. Fitness classes, happy hours, lawsuits, and presidential campaigns have all been moved to Zoom. People celebrated weddings and mourned at memorial services.

But the huge increase in the number of users raised awareness of the program’s security and privacy flaws.

Zoom denies misconduct in the settlement. A company spokesperson told NPR, “The privacy and security of our users is a top priority for Zoom, and we take our users’ trust in us seriously. We pride ourselves on the progress we’ve made on our platform and look forward to continuing innovation with privacy and security at the forefront. “

Another hearing on the case is scheduled for October.

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