As people are required to work from home, apps like Zoom help us with video conferencing. But why is the iOS app sending our data to Facebook?
Upon downloading and opening the app, Zoom connects to Facebook’s Graph API, according to Motherboard’s analysis of the app’s network activity. The Graph API is the main way developers get data in or out of Facebook. The Zoom app notifies Facebook when the user opens the app, details on the user’s device such as the model, the time zone and city they are connecting from, which phone carrier they are using, and a unique advertiser identifier created by the user’s device which companies can use to target a user with advertisements.
I’ll add this to my #DeleteFBSDK endeavors.
Check It Out: Why is Zoom Sending Our Data to Facebook?
Zoom is the best videoconferencing tool available, hands down. It allows even to save PowerPoint (or whatever) presentations with audio and laser pointer as movies with a surprising small size. And now is free during the coronavirus pandemic for academic institutions like schools and universities. Hopefully, the security issues will be fixed soon!
Good news:
Zoom Updates iOS App to Stop Sending Data to Facebook
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/03/27/zoom-ios-app-stops-sending-facebook-data
Well done!
Excellent. Many thanks for that update.
Andrew:
This, plus their data insecurity history, plus their lack of transparency about data sharing with FB, plus their ‘other potential privacy issues’ as noted by the Vice article, are all klaxons warning the Zoom user to brace for impact.
Zoom is a great product and an efficacious tool. It simply turns out that the ‘free’ basic account is not ‘free’ and that the true cost for service use is as yet unclear.
Once again, data collection needs to be regulated, with no less oversight, monitoring and auditing than the banking sector, and with penalties for violation no less severe.
Once implemented, the manufacture of orange jumpsuits could become a growth industry.