Video conferencing giant Zoom is spending $85 million to improve its security to settle a privacy breach lawsuit. This lawsuit claimed that Zoom had violated its users’ privacy rights.
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As per details of the lawsuit, Zoom had been sharing its users’ personal data with Facebook, Google, and Linkedin. The lawsuit also argued that Zoom calls are easily disrupted by hackers in a practice called “Zoombombing”.
Zoom has denied any wrongdoing in the settlement agreement. This preliminary settlement still requires approval from U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California.
As compensation, Zooms’ paid users in the proposed class-action lawsuit will be eligible for 15% refunds on their core subscriptions, or $25. Other users could receive up to $15, but this has not been confirmed yet.
Zoom has also agreed to improve security measures on its app such as alerting call participants when a host and other participants are using a third-party software of some sort. Zoom will also be providing specialized training to its employees regarding privacy and data handling.
Although Zoom makes more than $1.3 billion in revenue from its subscriptions, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said that the $85 million should be reasonable given the litigation risks.
There is no indication on when Zoom plans to add new security features to its app, but once it does, we will know why.
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