since theartificial intelligence has entered the lives of consumers – through products accessible to all, such as ChatGPT and Google Bard – some doubts have emerged about the future of some working figures, about the alleged violations of content protected by copyright but also about what is really being done to protect user privacy. The company that distributes has thought of throwing fuel on the fire Zoomthe popular video meeting platform.
Zoom and the new terms of use for AI training: users fear for their privacy
Zoom Video Communications, Inc. has recently updated its terms of service. According to some, the changes would allow the aforementioned company to “lawfully violate” consumer privacy. Two sections in particular (10.2 and 10.4) ring the alarm bells, as they reveal that Zoom can now leverage user data to train its AI. And without the possibility of waiver for the same. Specifically, we are talking about any telemetry data, product usage data, diagnostic data, and so on.
The company also declares that it may modify, distribute, process, share and archive the data generated by its service for any purpose, obviously in the manner permitted by law. From section 10.4 we then learn that the company has secured “a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable license” to do whatever it wants with the Costumer Content.
For privacy advocates, the implications of those terms are far-reaching and Zoom, as a company, has gone too far. According to the latter, the new terms are intended to improve the platform and the quality of service in general, but in how many will be willing to accept them? The risk, according to experts, is that many users, feeling uncomfortable, will ask for more guarantees on the use of their data. Or, more drastically, they will move to other platforms (apparently?) more inclined to protect privacy.
Despite the fuss, Zoom has yet to issue an official comment on consumer concerns.