ZOOM will have to pay out millions of dollars for violating user privacy, a US court has ruled.
A class action lawsuit looks sent to dent the US-based company’s pandemic profits after a group of users took it to caught for sharing personal data and ‘lying’ about end-to-end encryption.
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A settlement reached in a Californian court this weekend means Zoom may have to fork out up to $85million (£61million) in compensation.
Zoom has not publicly acknowledged any wrongdoing in regards to the settlement.
It said in a statement: “The privacy and security of our users are top priorities for Zoom, and we take seriously the trust our users place in us.”
Any Zoom subscribers included in the lawsuit could get a payout of up to $35.
It depends whether they had a paid Zoom subscription or not.
The case involves people who accessed Zoom from March 30, 2016, to the date of the settlement.
Although the final settlement is still awaiting approval from Judge Lucy Koh.
Unfortunately, this type of lawsuit means only US residents can get compensation.
The lawyers on the case are asking for a staggering $21.25million (£15.3million) in legal fees.
The lawsuit claims Zoom shared the personal data of users with Facebook, Google and LinkedIn.
This is considered a breach of user privacy because the users were unaware of the data sharing.
When a user logged in to Zoom using Facebook, Zoom would tell the social network and share information to help with targetted advertising.
However, this data sharing stopped happening in April last year.
The company was also accused of not doing enough to stop “Zoom-bombing”.
This behaviour saw people crash private meetings and even share graphic and illegal content with unsuspecting users.
Zoom has tightened up its security since many of the incidents at the start of the pandemic.
Man Utd star Marcus Rashford has ‘surreal’ zoom call with former US President Barack Obama after child poverty fight
In other news, the next iPhone will come in a new pink colour and start at just under £800, according to recent rumours.
Apple has paid millions of dollars to a woman whose explicit videos and images were shared online by people repairing her iPhone.
And, Spotify has launched a new feature for its Android and iOS apps that spots your favourite artists and gives you a personalised playlist.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
