Privacy Storm Brewing As Zoom’s Updated Terms Greenlight AI Model Training With User Data

Zoom has added a clause to its Terms-of-Service (TOS) which allows the video conferencing company to use customer-generated content for any purpose they see fit, including to train artificial intelligence (AI) models, with no opt-out.

Zoom’s TOS, last revised on July 26th, conceals a concerning caveat. Nestled within section 10.4, for those brave enough to venture, is language that confers upon Zoom a carte blanche right to exploit what it coins as “Service Generated Data” (SGD). This expansive designation encompasses a cornucopia of user-generated information – from innocuous telemetry data to incisive diagnostic insights – all grist for the AI mill.

Section 10.4 also describes the company’s use of Customer Content (defined as “data, content, files, documents, or other materials”), not just telemetry data and the like, which it can use “for the purpose of product and service development, marketing, analytics, quality assurance, machine learning, artificial intelligence, training, testing, improvement of the Services, Software, or Zoom’s other products, services, and software, or any combination thereof.”

The company makes clear that it will be using data for, among other things, fine-tuning AI models and algorithms. The potential consequences are manifold, raising red flags for privacy pundits and sparking debates over the boundaries of user consent.

Zoom’s data net is cast even wider with a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license. This legal carte blanche emboldens Zoom to undertake a multitude of actions that span the entire data lifecycle. From reconstituting, republishing, and accessing user content to the deep recesses of data modification, redistribution, and algorithmic processing, the breadth of Zoom’s dominion over user-generated data now defies conventional comprehension.

Zoom contends that these data maneuvers are vital to service provision, bolstering software quality, and enhancing the broader Zoom ecosystem. The augmentation of AI capabilities, epitomized by Zoom IQ, has been touted as a beacon of collaboration, promising efficient meeting summaries, task automation, and optimized follow-ups, all enabled by the seamless integration of user data.

“With the introduction of these new capabilities in Zoom IQ, an incredible generative AI assistant, teams can further enhance their productivity for everyday tasks, freeing up more time for creative work and expanding collaboration,” said Zoom chief product officer, Smita Hashim. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach to large language models, and with Zoom’s federated approach to AI, we are able to bring powerful capabilities to our customers and users through Zoom’s own models as well as our partners’ models.”

In 2021, Zoom agreed to settle a class-action privacy lawsuit for $86 million, after plaintiffs accused the company of violating the privacy of millions of users by sharing personal data with Facebook, LinkedIn and Google.

The controversial section of the TOS reads (emphasis ours):

Customer License Grant. You agree to grant and hereby grant Zoom a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license and all other rights required or necessary to redistribute, publish, import, access, use, store, transmit, review, disclose, preserve, extract, modify, reproduce, share, use, display, copy, distribute, translate, transcribe, create derivative works, and process Customer Content and to perform all acts with respect to the Customer Content: (i) as may be necessary for Zoom to provide the Services to you, including to support the Services; (ii) for the purpose of product and service development, marketing, analytics, quality assurance, machine learning, artificial intelligence, training, testing, improvement of the Services, Software, or Zoom’s other products, services, and software, or any combination thereof; and (iii) for any other purpose relating to any use or other act permitted in accordance with Section 10.3. If you have any Proprietary Rights in or to Service Generated Data or Aggregated Anonymous Data, you hereby grant Zoom a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license and all other rights required or necessary to enable Zoom to exercise its rights pertaining to Service Generated Data and Aggregated Anonymous Data, as the case

Let’s hope they exclude Jeffrey Toobin’s “Customer Content.“