Zoom has agreed to pay $85 million as the settlement fee for the U.S. class action privacy lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed in March 2020 on behalf of Zoom Meeting paid subscribers and free users. This was due to Zoom’s lack of security and sharing of user data with Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn. This resulted in many Zoom security issues and concerns about user data. This was also at a critical time when people were desperately trying to adapt to Covid-19.
The lawsuit also accused the company of misrepresenting itself as end-to-end encrypted and failing to stop hackers. The settlement will see customers receive a refund of either 15% of their subscription from April to October 2020 or $25, whichever is larger. Free users, on the other hand, will receive up to $15. The plaintiff’s lawyers are also seeking $21.25 million, or 25% of the $85 million settlement fund in legal fees.
A Quick Recap
From April 2020 to August 2020, many issues came forward relating to Zoom security. This also includes the user information and Zoom day zero exploits sold on the internet. There was also the issue of ‘Zoombombing,’ where uninvited users could crash meetings and cause problems. Due to the lack of security, malicious attackers could barge in meetings uninvited and could remove attendees.
Other problems included spoof messages, hijacked shared screens, and forced calls. However, the worst was when hackers used the app to install spying malware. Even before this, thousands of recordings were uploaded on Youtube and Vimeo due to a vulnerability issue. The situation got so bad that several governments advised not to use zoom.
Zoom Meeting Security Concerns
Zoom has now promised to get rid of its security issues and safeguard the privacy of its users. They took many steps towards this goal, such as using an external authentication feature to keep classrooms secure. Now Zoom users can only log in once under one set of credentials. They have also implemented a feature to inform users if their meetings are at risk of being disrupted. Hopefully, these Zoom security issues will become a concern of the past and not repeat yet again.
