Zoom iOS application was detected sending data to Facebook

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, countries repeatedly imposed strict social isolation measures, forcing hundreds of millions of people around the world to study and work from home through online tools. gland. This situation makes the software for online learning / working support such as Zoom become popular quickly, but it also leads to many problems related to data and user privacy.

According to a new report released by Motherboard security experts, the Zoom app for iOS phones is quietly sending some analytical data to Facebook, even if the Zoom user does not have a Facebook account, especially when sending this data is completely not clearly stated in the app's privacy policy.

In fact, this type of data transfer is not uncommon, especially regarding Facebook. Many applications use Facebook's software development kit (SDK) as a means to deploy features to their applications more easily, but this will also cause some data to be sent. Facebook that users do not know. In this case, too. Zoom users will not know their usage data is being silently sent to Facebook. And basically, this is clearly a privacy breach.

According to specific analysis of Motherboard, when users install and open Zoom, this application will connect to Facebook's Graph API. Graph API is also the main method for developers to get data into or out of Facebook.

The Zoom app (iOS) will send a notification to Facebook whenever the user opens the app, with details about the user's device such as the model, time zone and the city they are connected to, which phone provider they are in use and unique advertiser identifier generated by the user's device. This is very useful information for advertising operations.

Zoom's policy states that they may collect "users' Facebook profile information (when you use Facebook to log in to Zoom or to create a Zoom account)", but do not explicitly mention anything. about sending user data to Facebook, even those who don't have a Facebook account at all.

Facebook said it had asked developers to be transparent to users about the data their applications send to Facebook. The Facebook terms say: "If you use our pixels or SDK, you must make further statements and warrant that you have provided a notice that is strong and prominent enough for users to collect, share. and use of customer data, in particular for third-party applications, including Facebook, that may collect or receive information from your application, and use that information to provide measurement services. and targeted advertising ".

As such, Facebook can clearly state policies for applications using their SDKs. The problem lies only with Zoom. Zoom's privacy policy states that "our third-party service providers and advertising partners (for example, Google Ads and Google Analytics) will automatically collect some information about you when you use it. use our products, "but do not specifically mention this activity with Facebook.

The information immediately became a topic of 'shocking' in the Zoom user community. Zoom confirmed the data collection in a separate statement sent to the Motherboard, and pledged to provide the following resolution:

"To address this issue, in the next few days, we will be removing the Facebook SDK and reconfiguring the application so that users can still log in with Facebook through their browser. Users will need to update to the session." latest version to apply this change. We apologize for any inconvenience and remain committed to protecting our users' data as much as possible. "

So in the next few days, there will certainly be a new version for iOS Zoom application sent to users to solve the problem. Please pay attention to update your Zoom application to the latest version.