After Backlash, Zoom Revamps its AI Policy

Semmi W.
2 min readAug 12, 2023

--

GGD NEWS |

Photo Credit: Getty Images x GGD News

After publicizing new AI standards, Zoom has scrambled to updated its Terms of Service (TOS) twice. In late July, the video conferencing company added Artificial Intelligence terms that would require access to “Customer Content” (transcript data from video and audio calls). At first, Zoom didn’t give users the opportunity to option out . So if you wanted to protect your privacy, but still use Zoom for video meetings- it wouldn’t be possible unless you agreed to their new TOS. Zoom had stated that it wanted access to customer data in order to better train their generative AI tools like IQ Meeting Summary and Team Chat Compose . After a public outcry and privacy experts voicing ethical concerns, Zoom came out with an updated TOS . This new version carefully states that it does not use communication data “to train Zoom’s or third-party artificial intelligence models.” Zoom admins now have the ability to opt out. However, if your host (usually a manager or boss) grants access to your meeting data, but you don’t agree (as a non-admin user) you will have to hit the “leave meeting” button and be unable to completely participate in the conferencing session.

Photo Credit: Zoom Blog

On its blog site, Zoom posted an announcement ; repeatedly stating that it “does not use any of your audio, video, chat, screen-sharing, attachments, or other communications like customer content (such as poll results, whiteboard, and reactions) to train Zoom’s or third-party artificial intelligence models;” adding, “We value your privacy and are continuously working to enhance our services while respecting your rights and preferences.” Keep in mind, this is coming from the same company that announced (last year) its development of an “Emotion AI” product to help track emotions during video calls.

Even with their continuously adjusted terms (March, July and August of this year), Zoom will still be able to access behavior and engagement data from customers without direct permission.

Originally published at https://www.gogetdata.news on August 12, 2023.

Instagram: @GGDNews | Subscribe: GGD Newsletter

--

--

Semmi W.
Semmi W.

Written by Semmi W.

Writer x Designer. I post tech + culture stories. IG: @semmiw | www.semmiw.com

No responses yet