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UPDATE: On Dec. 2, 2020, Zoom filed a motion to dismiss several class action lawsuits filed this year claiming privacy invasions and harm.
Another Zoom class action lawsuit has been filed against the video communications company over alleged user security violations, sharing of user data, and the practice of “Zoombombing,” otherwise known as the breach of video conferences by unauthorized third parties.
Lead plaintiff Lisa Johnston claims that Zoom Video Communications Inc. has violated state and federal laws, acted negligently, and violated implied contracts with their customers.
Johnston says that, with the recent, unprecedented boost in the use of the service, Zoom has failed to appropriately protect its users from the disclosure of their data to third parties. Further, users have allegedly been subject to unwanted participants in a practice called “Zoombombing.”
Zoom is a company that offers remote conferencing services. According to the complaint, Zoom uses a cloud platform that allows users to host video and audio conferences and webinars and allows users to collaborate remotely. It recently went public, reporting a market capitalization exceeding $30 billion, according to the plaintiff.
“In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, demand for Zoom’s services exploded because hundreds of millions of people — all under stay-at-home orders — resort to videoconferencing to connect with others for work and social functions,” states the Zoom class action lawsuit.
“In recent weeks, Zoom has become the virtual classroom for millions of schoolchildren and workspace for many businesses and government agencies. The number of meeting participants across Zoom has jumped from 10 million in December 2019 to 200 million in March 2020.”
After Zoom’s rise in popularity, several articles were released, detailing the company’s alleged inadequate security and unlawful data collection and dissemination practices.
According to the complaint, several news outlets reported that the company uses data-mining to collect personal information about its users. Zoom then shares this information with third parties without consent, claims the plaintiff.
“Zoom regularly collects from its users a massive volume of personal information, including names, usernames, physical addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, employment information, credit/debit cards, and cookies and pixels (e.g., through the use of Google Analytics and Google Ads),” explains the Zoom class action lawsuit.
“When users visit Zoom’s websites, such as zoom.us and zoom.com, Zoom uses ‘cookies and tracking technologies’ to collect valuable personal data from users.”
In addition to the alleged data collecting, Zoom has been victim to a practice known as “Zoombombing.”
In fact, according to the complaint, the FBI has issued a warning to Zoom over reports that pornography, hate speech, and other disruptive content is being deployed by unknown third-parties during Zoom meetings.
The plaintiff says that Zoom’s security measures are inadequate, allowing unauthorized users to “attend” video conferences, some of which may include sensitive and private information.
“Contrary to Zoom’s promises, Zoom’s video conferences are not end-to-end (also known as ‘E2E’) encrypted — which means that in addition to the participating users, Zoom has the technical ability to spy on the video conferences and, when compelled by the government or others, to reveal the contents of the video conferences without the users’ consent,” contends the Zoom class action lawsuit.
The Zoom class action lawsuit says that the collection and dissemination of user data and the phenomena of Zoombombing is contradicted by Zoom’s representations to its users.
“On its website, Zoom boasts that it ‘exceed[s] industry standards’ in terms of security measures,” notes the Zoom class action lawsuit. “Zoom further promises that it ‘is committed to protecting [users’] privacy,’ and claims that it has ‘designed policies and controls to safeguard the collection, use, and disclosure of [users’] information.’ According to Zoom, it ‘places privacy and security as the highest priority in the lifecycle operations of our communications infrastructure.’”
These promises are false, alleges the plaintiff. According to the Zoom class action lawsuit, the users who access Zoom through their iOS mobile apps, commonly used on iPhones and iPads, are subject to having their personal information sent to Facebook for use in targeted advertising.
Users are not informed of the data sharing nor are they asked to consent, alleges the Zoom class action lawsuit. Even though the company has claimed to rectify the problem in a new release of the Zoom app, the plaintiff says that she and other users are still subject to privacy violations.
Have you been subject to “Zoombombing?” Are you worried about your data while teleconferencing? Tell us more in the comment section below.
The plaintiff and proposed Class Members are represented by Francis A. Bottini, Jr., Albert Y. Chang, and Yury A. Kolesnikov of Bottini & Bottini, and Mark C. Molumphy, Tyson Redenbarger, and Anya N. Thepot of Cotchette Pitre & McCarthy LLP.
The Zoom Class Action Lawsuit is Johnston v. Zoom Video Communications Inc., Case No. 5:20-cv-02376, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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357 thoughts onZoom Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over ‘Zoombombing’
Add me. I use zoom frequently for work & my daughter’s school.
Can you please add me I have you zoom in the past
The lawsuit brought against them is right
Sensitive information that should remain private has become free for all . Whose to say their easy dropping and collecting personal info. Are the problem of unemployment fraud .been using zoom ritually monthly ,court hearings , meetings, contract work.
My 10 year old has been doing on line learning since the beginning of the school year ..there has always been problems with zoom but now as soon as she goes to zoom weird things started to happen and now it’s to the point where it will completely shut down her laptop and I mean completely turn it off to where we have to manually restart it. not only hers but my personal laptop my phone and my husband’s phone when we log in with her account.
her zoom meetings have been hacked and I’m very uncomfortable about it please add me
On October 8th our “Meet the Candidate Night” hosted by our homeowners association was zoombombed with child pornography and child abuse videos being shared. I have filed a complaint with Zoom, completed a police report, completed an Internet Crime Complaint form with the FBI, and contacted the Florida Attorney General’s Office.
Please contact me for a potential Zoombombing lawsuit concerning a non-profit’s annual Gala and a hate crime.
add me
Please add me