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The Courts

Zoom Agrees To 'Historic' $85 Million Payout For Graphic Zoombombing Claims (theguardian.com) 50

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
The Covid-19 pandemic brought on a surge of "zoom-bombing" as hackers and pranksters crashed into virtual meetings with abusive messages and imagery. Now, Zoom has agreed to a "historic" payout of $85m as part of a class-action settlement brought by its users, including church groups who said they were left traumatized by the disruptions. From a report: As part of the settlement agreement, Zoom Video Communications, the company behind the teleconference application that grew popular during the pandemic, will pay the $85m to users in cash compensation and also implement reforms to its business practices. On Thursday, federal judge Laurel Beeler of California granted final approval to the agreement which was first filed in July. The agreement was granted preliminary approval in October. The settlement stems from 14 class-action complaints filed against the San Jose-based company by users between March and May of 2020, in which they argued that the company violated their privacy and security.
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Zoom Agrees To 'Historic' $85 Million Payout For Graphic Zoombombing Claims More

Zoom Agrees To 'Historic' $85 Million Payout For Graphic Zoombombing Claims

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  • Internet use requires some immunity to some things (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Saturday April 23, 2022 @02:43AM (#62471216)

    Just watch more porn and it will stop to "traumatize" you...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Just watch more porn and it will stop to "traumatize" you...

      Sure. While you're at it, remember to give that hardcore porn surfing device to your child at a very young age, like most parents do.

      Yeah, you do know what I'm talking about. A smartphone. You know, "for safety".

      Start em young. Isn't that what Bill Clinton used to say flying on Jeffrey Air? What could possibly go wrong...

    • Goatse can never be unseen.

  • Can't you put a pwd on your meetings?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      That is too complicated. Anyone that would use Zoom in the first place would, by definition, have to be an idiot so there you go.

      • If the price of targeting Mass Stupidity is $55 million, I'd hate to see the liability on products targeting intelligent life.

      • And this is why this world is increasingly a padded, no fun no freedom cell. Because now everyone can sue and claim "emotional trauma" which can be next to impossible to debunk.

        "Bad picture scare me!"- well then these clowns need to check into the funny farm because they obviously can't handle the real world.

      • Labeling all zoom users idiots is unfair.

        Labeling the slip 'n fall con artists swooning the amublance chasers as idiots is very fair.

          Telling users who didn't put a password on their meeting thus allowing any random weirdo and kook to walk right on in that they are too fucking stupid to live is extremely fair.

        • Its not only people creating meetings with no security...even the ones with a passcode were compromised as soon as kids thought it was funny to start sharing the credentials

          • "compromised as soon as kids thought it was funny to start sharing the credentials"

              Well you can't fix stupid and it's not Zoom's job to even try.

              If kids were sharing copies of the house key with strangers do we blame the lock manufacturer when something bad happens?

  • The only thing "historic" about Zoom and many others, is their historic profits during a pandemic.

    This minor payout, was nothing more than the pocket lint fee on that.

    • Which could have been a lot higher if they hadn't given everyone 40 min free sessions.
      Of course their profits are historic, they're a pretty new company in an expanding business sector. I bet next years profits will also be historic.

  • That is huge amount and given for Graphic Zoombombing. That is amazing

  • A pittance (Score:4, Informative)

    by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Saturday April 23, 2022 @07:17AM (#62471506)

    FTA: "$85m payout", and "paying users who submit claims will be eligible for 30% of the subscription payment they made during the class period and others will each receive approximately $29."

    The people who actually paid for the service didn't even get a full refund. And I'm pretty sure the total payout - "historic" or not - is way too small given Zoom's current market cap of $30 billion. Unless penalties are high enough to threaten a company's continued existence, and/or result in C-suite occupants being hauled off to jail, they aren't large enough.

    Obviously, civil court isn't the right venue for this kind of case. Payouts are great for the complainants' lawyers but not so great for the complainants themselves, and they aren't big enough to be much of a deterrent for the defendants.

    • I think that is the point. While their are some contracts where I might be liable for more than I paid for a service, they are pretty rare, far between, and EXPENSIVE. A church is not going to spend the money on a contract where they can sue for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages when the other does not fill their end. Similar to my internet contract, maybe I can get my money back if their service is bad enough, nothing is ever going to have me make a profit on the contract.

    • Re:A pittance (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tsqr ( 808554 ) on Saturday April 23, 2022 @10:02AM (#62471804)

      Of course they didn't "even" get a full refund. If your Internet service goes down for a few hours, are you entitled to a full refund for that month? The payout to entities that paid for Zoom service is compensation for damages comprising loss of service and misrepresentation of privacy safeguards. The mandated changes in business practices and the resulting loss in revenue will likely cost Zoom far more than the cash payout part of the judgement. Of course, the brain-dead summary didn't discuss the entire terms of the judgement because the point of Slashdot summaries these days is to spark outrage, not to inform. And some Slashdotters these days are happy to express their outrage without bothering to glance at TFA.

      This judgement is only one of Zoom's problems at this point. The stock is down over 60% since the start of the year; analysts' growth estimate for this year is -30%. Zoom was one of the Pandemic Unicorns, along with Netflix, DocuSign and Peloton. [yahoo.com] Now they're looking more like jackasses.

    • FTA: "$85m payout", and "paying users who submit claims will be eligible for 30% of the subscription payment they made during the class period and others will each receive approximately $29."

      The people who actually paid for the service didn't even get a full refund. And I'm pretty sure the total payout - "historic" or not - is way too small given Zoom's current market cap of $30 billion.

      Market cap doesn't automatically translate to actual assets. You can't use market cap to pay your financial obligations.

    • Did it initially have security holes? Yes. Did those security holes have anything whatsoever to do with "zoom bombing"? Nope. Zoom bombing was (and still is!) taking place when someone shares their meeting ID and password, a link which has both. Usually its teens wanting others to bomb their classes. They will post instruction on twitter, discord, etc on when and where to go. The bad actors look for the right tags and find the posts, then go disrupt the meeting. It's a social issue, not a techn

  • "were left traumatized..PAY US NOW!"

      The slip 'n fall at the supermarket of this generation.

      These people are "traumatizing" me with their constant barking about a scary offensive picture "traumatizing" them. Maybe I should sue those people.

    • I was at a lecture that was zoombombed. It was worse than I could have imagined. I have a thicker skin than anyone I know, and I was traumatized. You canâ(TM)t unsee something, it was just soul crushing. It was 2 years ago, and I donâ(TM)t think about it because it makes me cry. So go fuck yourself.
      • That's unfortunate that it happened. The underlying problem isn't a security issue, its a social issue. One of your classmates shared the link, probably with the intention of inviting in the bomber.

      • Yeah, I've actually been through real physical trauma that haunts me to this day, so go fuck yourself.

          I'm sure that you have been on the internet for a while and you know how nasty the net can get, and that it's a reflection of a much nastier real world. If the zoom meeting was bothering you so much you could've just logged out but instead you chose to continue and soak up the "trauma". Scince you chose the route that you did then suck it up, buttercup!

      • You also need to go to boot camp. The drill sergeant will turn you into someone who can deal with the big bad world.

  • Didn't zoom bombing almost always happen because someone shared the private link to the meeting, and because the organizer didn't swtich on thew waiting room? That doesn't really seem like Zoom's fault?

  • Church groups (Score:3)

    by JThundley ( 631154 ) on Saturday April 23, 2022 @06:28PM (#62472670)

    It was part of God's plan to traumatize church groups in Zoom meetings. He works in mysterious ways after all!

  • I'm surprised Zoom's TOS doesn't include boilerplate in which they disclaim any responsibility for the software or how it is used, and state that it is provided "as is" without any warranty whatsoever.

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