Zoom iOS App Sends Data to Facebook Even if You Don't Have a Facebook Account

As people work and socialize from home, video conferencing software Zoom has exploded in popularity. What the company and its privacy policy don't make clear is that the iOS version of the Zoom app is sending some analytics data to Facebook, even if Zoom users don't have a Facebook account, according to a Motherboard analysis of the app. From the report: This sort of data transfer is not uncommon, especially for Facebook; plenty of apps use Facebook's software development kits (SDK) as a means to implement features into their apps more easily, which also has the effect of sending information to Facebook. But Zoom users may not be aware it is happening, nor understand that when they use one product, they may be providing data to another service altogether. "That's shocking. There is nothing in the privacy policy that addresses that," Pat Walshe, an activist from Privacy Matters who has analyzed Zoom's privacy policy, said in a Twitter direct message. 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.
UPDATE: On Friday March 27, Zoom updated its iOS app to stop sending data to Facebook. "We originally implemented the 'Login with Facebook' feature using the Facebook SDK in order to provide our users with another convenient way to access our platform," Zoom told Motherboard. "However, we were recently made aware that the Facebook SDK was collecting unnecessary device data. We sincerely apologize for this oversight..."

Peeping Zook

[sinij]

The indiscriminate data collection without explicit end-user consent should be illegal.

Re:

[Topmounter]

Facebook should be made illegal.

Re:

[liamo]

In the EU, this IS illegal. It will be interesting to see what the various Data Protection authorities make of this.

Time for a legal challenge

[Teun]

Time for a legal challenge, I'll leave the rest to my signature.

Darn it Zoom

[edi_guy]

I've been super impressed with Zoom..until this. Has been solid throughout in both work and family meetings. Google Hangouts has been a mess with poor quality and maxing CU, Facetime is not great with more than two participants. Slack video is inconsistent with freezing, drops etc. But Zoom really has been impressive.

Re:Darn it Zoom

[JaredOfEuropa]

The last couple of years, the goal of the average "tech" startup wasn't providing a useful service, but gathering useful data. Before that it was gathering eyeballs. The service is secondary to that. I wonder if Zoom genuinely hoped to build a good service they could monetize themselves, or if they wanted to make money off the collected data (or simply get bought by teh Zuck)

Re:

[antdude]

WebEx? I assume all services have issues. :(

How do they know it's the ad identifier...

[SuperKendall]

Here's the thing - Apple has generally in the past pulled apps that use the ad identifier but do not display ads. So I don't see how Zoom would be able to have an app that would get the advertising identifier to send to Facebook or anywhere else.

Maybe the graph API is just part of some Facebook analytics package Zoom is making use of? Could be Zoom itself does not even know that data is going out, they might think they are just using some simpler Facebook library to do something else.

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

> Maybe the graph API is just part of some Facebook analytics package Zoom is making use of? Could be Zoom itself does not even know that data is going out, they might think they are just using some simpler Facebook library to do something else.

Sure, but we lynch first and ask questions later.

If I had to guess it's their SSO and maybe the Graph call is at the wrong nesting order in the account selection switch.

Skype

[ArchieBunker]

So what happened to Skype? Used to be all the rage and now everyone is on the Zoom bandwagon.

Re:

[xushi]

Microsoft bought them.. Nuff said.

Re:

[ksw_92]

Zoom is the "flavor of the month". Users see the shiny ads and say, "Ooo! I don't need IT anymore! to grant me a conference license, those Doom-playing dullards!" then whip out the corp p-card and start up a subscription. A year later they tire of having to tell everyone to "just download the Zoom app" and otherwise supporting the unschooled on their own. So they move on to the next new hotness. Users shifted from Skype to WebEx to GotoMeeting to UberConference to Zoom over time. They all do the same thing

Re: Skype

[Malc]

It worked better and had fewer bugs 10 years ago! We still use it at work but it is highly irritating at times. We've got used to group calling actually calling people, whereas most of the alternatives you have to actively seek out and opt-in and this meant people kept missing meetings when we tried something else. And good luck finding a meeting in MS Teams' god awful UI, or even seeing a notification if you're on macOS because MS don't know how to use native APIs and insist on reinventing the wheel.

It's probably time to install an iOS firewall

[bobstreo]

and block all connections (unless allowed) to Bookface and google "services"

It takes some work to tune a firewall, but most of you don't have anything better to do in the time of the plague.

Re:

[xushi]

Just use an Adblocker. There are several browser extensions & DNS blockers out there.

Browser: IMO, Ublock Origin, uMatrix, and Privacy Badger are up there in block-rate, resource usage.

Phone: AdGuard is good and cheap, and blocks Youtube ads on Safari, and in-game ads.

Whole house:

I use PiHole (https://pi-hole.net/) for the whole house, including my TVs and phones when connected via wifi. I was surprised at how many requests my Samsung TV sends out (and now are blocked).

If you don't have an RPi, there ar

Re:

[xushi]

I don't see you mentioning an alternative?

Again, as mentioned, I use it with all my devices, including Macs, TVs, iPhones, Android phones, iPads, PS2, Arduinos, basically everything in my house (about 150 active devices at this moment based on my DHCP server), and I have zero problems so far. And yes this includes IPv6. And I can login to all sites - granted I am not on *any* social media sites though.

If you do have problems with it, how about you troubleshoot, or report bugs back to the developer, instead

F this. Schools/Kids Forced to use Zoom

[omfglearntoplay]

I don't like it one bit.

HIPPA

[Harvey Manfrenjenson]

Especially disturbing given that Zoom claims to be HIPAA-compliant. Doctors use it to meet with patients. If someone can prove that Zoom shares client data in a manner that violates HIPAA, the company will be in big trouble.

Slow news day? Every web site does this.

[Tony Isaac]

Yep, even slashdot. Take a look at the javascript for just about any web site, and you'll find it sending an ID for you to facebook, and google, and a dozen other advertising sites.