Is Zoom Really Using Your Video Calls for AI Training?

If your Monday feeds are filled with people threatening to never use Zoom again, you’re not alone. There are reports everywhere that Zoom is using your video calls to train its AI models . It turns out they are right about something, but that’s not the whole story.

What’s going on with Zoom?

Zoom recently updated their terms of service . It usually doesn’t make headlines on its own. However, with these updates comes a new language that seems to suggest that the company is taking your data and training their AI models on it . Yes.

Of particular note are sections 10.2 and 10.4, which state that by using Zoom, you give the company permission to use the “service generated data” you generate, as well as the “customer content data” you generate, for, among other things, “machine learning or artificial intelligence (including for the purpose of training and tuning algorithms and models)”.

Because the terms of service are written in legal language to cover Zoom as much as possible (and also likely to be confusing), it’s not too clear what data, in particular, the company collects for these purposes. Data generated by the service includes telemetry data, product usage data, diagnostic data, and similar content or data, while customer content consists of data, content, files, documents, or other materials that you provide, upload, or create in combination with derivative transcripts. , analytics, outputs, visual displays or datasets that Zoom makes available to you.

For the context “video”, “audio”, or “calls” is not mentioned here, but it is safe to assume that the data falls under “client content”.

Zoom’s response and how it allegedly uses your data

As Mashable reports , Stack Diary first noticed the change on Monday. The online hype quickly spread, with some users going so far as to say they would never use the service again – it’s not hard to blame them if you imagine your video calls between colleagues and friends are being used to train a clumsy Zoom robot.

Zoom has definitely taken note of this as the company posted a blog post in hopes of clarifying its position. They emphasized that certain sections of the policy were designed to say that customers own their own video, audio, and chat data, and that “service generated data” is simply analytics data obtained while using the service (e.g., time of day , calls). placed or how long the calls last).

Most importantly, however, the blog post emphasized this in bold and all: ” For AI, we do not use audio, video, or chat content to train our models without the consent of the client .”

This looks like the truth. Zoom will not collect your data to train its AI models unless you select one or both of the optional AI features: Zoom IQ Meeting Summary and Zoom IQ Team Chat. When you first launch the AI ​​Adder or AI Chat Assistant, you will have the option to disable “Data Sharing”, a feature that sends your call data (among other data points) to Zoom for possible AI training. Even if you leave this setting enabled, you can disable it after the fact.

So, as far as this goes, it’s like a bad Zoom rollout: the company should have been more transparent about what it’s trying to do here, publish a blog post from the start so customers know how to disable this data collection if they want to. use AI features without using their chats as AI training fodder.

However, the story is not quite finished. You see, these controls are great if you’re someone who turns on the AI ​​features. But at this time, it doesn’t look like meeting participants with “Data Sharing” turned on have the ability to prevent their data from reaching the Zoom AI Lab. When you start a conversation with an administrator trying out one of these new AI features, you’ll receive a notification pop-up. However, you only have the option to leave the meeting or stay. If you join and your administrator has “Data Sharing” turned on, Zoom can pick up your call. Zoom users should not contact the call leader and make sure they have “Data Sharing” turned off before the meeting can continue.

In addition, this data collection option only applies to user-generated content: since Zoom considers content generated by the service to be its own, it will use this data in its sole discretion, including for machine learning purposes. Zoom has not responded to Gizmodo’s questions about this data , so there’s still some ambiguity as to exactly what data Zoom is taking in this category.

Should I stop using Zoom?

Listen, Zoom is very popular, especially in the workplace. If your company uses Zoom to host its digital meetings, there isn’t much you can do here. If you are making calls, avoid using AI features, or at least make sure “Data Sharing” is turned off. If you are not on a call, ask your administrator to check these settings.

Zoom obviously has some advantages as a video conferencing app, but it’s not the most secure on the planet. ( Remember Zoombombing? ) You can enable end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for calls, but you will lose a lot of features if you do so.

So, if you’re focused on privacy and security, you might want to consider a service that emphasizes both. Apple FaceTime, for example, uses E2EE by default and doesn’t store your calls in any way. If you can rotate it, it could be a good alternative to Zoom in a pinch .