Recent Coronavirus out has pushed many companies around the world to advise their workers to work from home. That’s why there is a sudden surge in video conference app usage. One such application is Zoom. Now, a new report says that Zoom’s iOS-based app sends data to Facebook even if users don’t have an account on the social networking platform.
Now, this is not something uncommon. Many application developers use Facebook’s Software Development Kit or SDK to implement many features in their app easily. In turn, user information is sent back to Facebook. However, Facebook’s policies require app developers to be transparent about their apps sharing data with Facebook. The company requires app developers to provide “robust and sufficiently prominent notice to users” about their data collection.
But in the case Zoom, users may not be aware that their data is being sent to Facebook and moreover it also shares data of non-Facebook users with the company. Zoom is not clear or transparent about this practice. In their privacy policy, they said that it may collect users’ Facebook profile information when they log into the app using their Facebook accounts.
When you download and open the app, Zoom connects to Facebook’s Graph API. API or Application Programme Interface is the industry standard way of sending data between two different platforms. Zoom shares data like device model no, the time zone, city and which phone carrier you are using.
Sharing user’s data is not something new. From Google to Microsoft to Apple everyone collects user’s data. And data is important to enhance the user’s experience. Well, let’s not talk about the security of those data. But atleast they mentioned this in their privacy policy. But in this case, Zoom isn’t transparent about their practice in their privacy policy
Source: Vice
