Zoom's TOS Permit Training AI on User Content Without Opt-Out

Not only is this a dupe, it&#x27;s now outdated. Zoom re-updated their ToS to clarify that they will not do this.<p>Current discussion on HN: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=37037196">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=37037196</a><p>The added clause:<p>&gt; Notwithstanding the above, Zoom will not use audio, video or chat Customer Content to train our artificial intelligence models without your consent.<p>EDIT: Since a bunch of people are chiming in here to respond to me about the new clause, I wanted to clarify my intent: please move the conversation to the submission of Zoom&#x27;s response! This thread should be removed simply on the grounds of being a duplicate of the <i>huge</i> thread from yesterday, doubly so since the information in the article is now outdated.

Zoom&#x27;s general response includes 10.1 and 10.4 <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.zoom.us&#x2F;zooms-term-service-ai&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.zoom.us&#x2F;zooms-term-service-ai&#x2F;</a><p>See COO response too other HN thread <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=37029700">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=37029700</a>

Dupe:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=37021160">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=37021160</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=37034145">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=37034145</a>

In sec. 10.4, Zoom says &quot;Notwithstanding the above, Zoom will not use audio, video or chat Customer Content to train our artificial intelligence models without your consent.&quot;<p>Customer Content is defined in 10.1 broadly. But sec. 10.2 clearly states that &quot;Customer Content&quot; does NOT include &quot;Service Generated Data.&quot;<p>Service Generated Data = &quot;any telemetry data, product usage data, diagnostic data, and similar content or data that Zoom collects or generates in connection with your or your End Users’ use of the Services ....&quot; (sec. 10.2).<p>Zoom is allowed to use Service Generated Data for any purpose (sec. 10.2).<p>This &quot;clarification&quot; does nothing meaningful to assuage the serious data privacy concerns posed by Zoom&#x27;s use of captured user video content.

I&#x27;m not a lawyer or anything related, but this reading of Zoom&#x27;s terms of use seems really off. They could&#x27;ve done a better job explaining their AI stuff&#x2F;data usage, but the reality (after reading the ToS) is far from what this blog post suggests.

Speaking plainly, Zoom steals user data to train its AI models and to sell that data to whoever pays. Imagine a regular business run like this: you enter a coffee shop and by pushing the door you <i>agree to</i> terms of service (250 pages of text available upon request) that allow the shop to record your conversations, take photos of you, and sell that data to anyone.

I’d like to think HN had a small role in making Zoom blink and “clarify” that open ended rights to do what they wanted somehow isn’t what the original text said or intended.<p>But the reality is this wording could come back in another form. Lawyers will lawyer.<p>Still the world gets better at learning to read terms of services together and that’s magical.

People who trust Zoom, also trust Facebook. Jitsi runs highly optimized on a number of great platforms such as <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;federated.computer" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;federated.computer</a>.

I mean... everyone else is training their AIs on every scrap of data they can scrounge up from anyplace they can find it, so why would Zoom be different? Are people surprised by this?

Asking anyone in a commercial context to submit to a video conference where their biometric likeness will be collected and analyzed deserves two years in jail.<p>There is enough open source and working crypto out there to have an encrypted call. People with dignity should not have to be tyrannized by utter stupidity, at least not on this issue.