With coronavirus lockdowns in place in many parts of the United States, more and more people are resorting to Zoom video conferencing not just for work-related meetings, but also to catch up with friends and family members. According to a report on Vice.com, a Zoom user has filed a class-action lawsuit in California against the company for sending consumers’ data to Facebook. The lawsuit states that Zoom, by doing so, has violated California’s new data protection law by not obtaining proper consent from users regarding the transfer of data.
Lack of Adequate Security Measures
The complaint states that Zoom knew or should have known that the app’s security practices were not sufficient to safeguard consumers’ personal information and that the risk of unauthorized disclosure to at least Facebook was highly likely. The lawsuit also alleges that Zoom failed to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the information to protect consumers’ personal information.
By analyzing the network traffic of the Zoom iOS app, Motherboard found that when opened, the app sent information about the user’s device such as the model, the city and time zone from where they are connecting, which phone carrier they are using and a unique advertiser identifier created by the user’s device. Days after Motherboard informed Zoom about the data transfer, the company issued a statement confirming the analysis and pushed an update to the app to remove the specific code, which sent the data.
The lawsuit says that Zoom, however, did not take any action to block any of the prior versions of the app from operating and therefore unless users affirmatively update their app, they are likely to unknowingly continue sending unauthorized personal information to Facebook and even other third parties. The complaint also alleges that Zoom has done nothing to ensure that Facebook has deleted the data either and that the company participated in “unlawful and unfair business practices,” thereby violating California law.
Class Action Lawsuits
Our California class action attorneys believe that when large corporations violate state and federal laws, a class action lawsuit is a good way to hold them accountable. The civil justice system is frequently the last resort for consumers who have been the victims of corporations. Consumer data is precious and it is unacceptable for companies to sell them to others without securing proper authorization from consumers.
Source: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/pke4vb/zoom-faces-class-action-lawsuit-for-sharing-data-with-facebook
