Bach Seat

Who can forget the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and the phenomenon of Zoomboming? Many people cannot forget and they responded with lawsuits. The suits claimed that Zoom (ZM) enabled Zoombombing and was sharing personally identifiable information (PII) without proper notice.

Zoombombing

TechCrunch defines Zoombombing as the disruption of Zoom calls by unapproved attendees. They would join a Zoom call and disrupt it by sharing offensive content. The content included using backgrounds to spread hateful messages, spouting slurs, anti-Semitism profanities, and pornography. Users of Zoom suffered these events during the first half of the COVID-19 lockdowns.

The frequency of Zoombombing prompted the FBI to issue a public warning about the cyber harassment. I wrote about the problems people were encountering with Zoom on the Bach Seat.  Zoom was slow to respond to these threats. But eventually, they put additional security in place to reduce the frequency of Zoombmombing.

Zoom shared users personal data

Lawsuits in Florida and California accused the firm of sharing personal user data with third parties. Personal user data was sent to Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn. Motherboard reported that Zoom’s ‘Company Directory,’ feature was leaking leak personal information including email addresses and photos.

The Company Directory feature would automatically add other people to a user’s list of contacts if they sign up with an email address that shares the same domain. However, according to the report, multiple Zoom users say they signed up with personal email addresses, and Zoom pooled them together with thousands of other people as if they all worked for the same company. This exposed their personal information to unknown others.

Settlement

In May 2021 the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California consolidated the many complaints into a single class-action suit. On 08/03/2021 Zoom agreed to settle the court case. It has proposed an $85 million settlement.

In the settlement, Zoom denied it violated any laws. They also questioned if users actually suffered injury or damages. The settlement would see customers receive a refund. Payment amounts are expected to average $34 or $35 for those who subscribed to Zoom’s paid version. Those who used the free version could get $11 or $12 based on estimates in court documents.

Zoom collected approximately $1.3 billion in subscriptions from paid subscribers according to the documents. Zooms’ lawyers called the $85 million settlement reasonable given the litigation risks.  Zoom’s annual revenue quadrupled during the pandemic to nearly $2.7 billion. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, CA is expected to finalize the settlement in October 2021.

CNet offers a FAQ on the Zoom settlement.

Can I get a payment from Zoom?

If you registered, used, opened, or downloaded the Zoom app for personal use (not through an enterprise or government account) between March 30, 2016, and July 30, 2021, you are potentially eligible for the refund from Zoom. This also includes people who signed up for Zoom’s free tier. 

How much money could I get?

If you are eligible based on the date ranges above and you paid for a Zoom account, you could receive 15% of the money paid to Zoom for your subscription during that time or $25 (whichever is greater). If you are eligible but had a free Zoom account, you can claim $15. However, these rates may change depending on how many people file a claim.

How do I claim my settlement money? 

If the settlement is approved at the October hearing, Zoom will provide available names, emails, addresses, and account numbers to the settlement administrator. Those that are eligible for a refund, will be notified by email or mailed postcard and asked to provide your name, mailing address, email, and claim number. If you’re not notified but think you are qualified, you can still file a claim by providing either an email associated with your Zoom account, a Zoom account number, or documentation showing that you were impacted. A new website (ZoomMeetingsClassAction.com) will have more information, but at the time of this writing was not yet live.

Is Zoom going to be safer?

As part of the settlement, Zoom also said it would continue to take new measures to prevent Zoombombing, such as alerting people when hosts or meeting participants use third-party apps in meetings. They will offer (rb- but not mandate) specialized training to employees on privacy and data handling.

rb-

Of course, you could also delete your zoom account. There is no way to use Zoom and not agree to their privacy terms. If you do use Zoom, you’re giving up a lot of your personal information. By deleting your Zoom account and no longer using the application, you’re stopping it from collecting your data.