Doc Searls wrote a blog post titled Zoom needs to clean up its privacy act.
« As quarantined millions gather virtually on conferencing platforms, the best of those, Zoom, is doing very well. Hats off. »
« But Zoom is also—correctly—taking a lot of heat for its privacy policy, which is creepily chummy with the tracking-based advertising biz (also called adtech). Two days ago, Consumer Reports, the greatest moral conscience in the history of business, published Zoom Calls Aren’t as Private as You May Think. Here’s What You Should Know: Videos and notes can be used by companies and hosts. Here are some tips to protect yourself. »
« I’ll narrow my inquiry down to the “Does Zoom sell Personal Data?” section of the privacy policy, which was last updated on March 18… “Zoom does use certain standard advertising tools which require Personal Data” »
« What they mean by that is adtech. What they’re also saying here is that Zoom is in the advertising business, and in the worst end of it: the one that lives off harvested personal data. What makes this extra creepy is that Zoom is in a position to gather plenty of personal data, some of it very intimate (for example with a shrink talking to a patient) without anyone in the conversation knowing about it. (Unless, of course, they see an ad somewhere that looks like it was informed by a private conversation on Zoom.) »
« A person whose personal data is being shed on Zoom doesn’t know that’s happening because Zoom doesn’t tell them. »
« As for Zoom’s competitors, there’s a great weakness to exploit here. »
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