On Thursday, a report from Vice comprehends that video conferencing service Zoom issued an update for iOS that removed codes and stops it sending data to Facebook and ensured that it will no longer send certain pieces of data to the app without expressing their consent. This extensive change occurred when Vice investigated and found out that the Zoom iOS app was sending data to Facebook whenever users such as their time zone, their device details i.e. which model, and their city to the individuals who opened the app.
On Friday, “What’s actually new?” statement along with the Zoom iOS app updates published “Improvement in Facebook login” update was downloaded by Motherboard and ensured that it does not send data to Facebook when it is opened.
According to an article published by the Chief Executive Officer Eric C. Yuan, Zoom leverages “Login in with Facebook” feature which is a Facebook’s software growth program also known as SDK (Software Development Kit) that provides quick, convenient, and effective sign-in to the users to access their platform. It was observed that even if the user did not maintain their Facebook account then too Zoom automatically connected to Facebook and shared information with the app. However, in this neoteric time, “they made aware that the Facebook SDK was collecting in-essential data” which is now come to an end; it was also published by Zoom to Motherboard in an article on Friday.
The main purpose of the Software Development Kit is to develop numerous bundles of codes that helped in implementing certain features for the apps, so do the Facebook SDK, but it should be ensured that it does not reveal user’s information. It is a great initiative by the Zoom iOS app to remove codes that were sending information to Facebook.
Zoom also said in a statement that, “The data collected by Facebook was not personal data of the user but it included data about users. No personal data was shared or collected rather user’s device name, their time zone, and their city, their mobile software whether OS or Android and version, screen size, processor cores, and disk space.”
It was not clearly mentioned in the Zoom’s app Privacy Policy that it sends users date to Facebook and this also happened even if Zoom users do not have a Facebook account. Zoom would connect to Facebook Graph API without any consent and share users’ information. After this entire scenario, the Zoom app left in a hurry and updates its iOS app to stop it sending data to Facebook to maintain their publicity.
Read next: How Free VPNs can be Dangerous? [Infographic]
On Friday, “What’s actually new?” statement along with the Zoom iOS app updates published “Improvement in Facebook login” update was downloaded by Motherboard and ensured that it does not send data to Facebook when it is opened.
According to an article published by the Chief Executive Officer Eric C. Yuan, Zoom leverages “Login in with Facebook” feature which is a Facebook’s software growth program also known as SDK (Software Development Kit) that provides quick, convenient, and effective sign-in to the users to access their platform. It was observed that even if the user did not maintain their Facebook account then too Zoom automatically connected to Facebook and shared information with the app. However, in this neoteric time, “they made aware that the Facebook SDK was collecting in-essential data” which is now come to an end; it was also published by Zoom to Motherboard in an article on Friday.
The main purpose of the Software Development Kit is to develop numerous bundles of codes that helped in implementing certain features for the apps, so do the Facebook SDK, but it should be ensured that it does not reveal user’s information. It is a great initiative by the Zoom iOS app to remove codes that were sending information to Facebook.
Zoom also said in a statement that, “The data collected by Facebook was not personal data of the user but it included data about users. No personal data was shared or collected rather user’s device name, their time zone, and their city, their mobile software whether OS or Android and version, screen size, processor cores, and disk space.”
It was not clearly mentioned in the Zoom’s app Privacy Policy that it sends users date to Facebook and this also happened even if Zoom users do not have a Facebook account. Zoom would connect to Facebook Graph API without any consent and share users’ information. After this entire scenario, the Zoom app left in a hurry and updates its iOS app to stop it sending data to Facebook to maintain their publicity.
Read next: How Free VPNs can be Dangerous? [Infographic]
