Class Action Lawsuit Against Zoom
Zoom is a video conferencing company that produces a popular app that allows people to connect with one another remotely and conduct virtual meetings, classes, etc. It saw a tremendous rise in stock prices at the beginning of the year, but after reports leaked in late March raising questions about security flaws and privacy concerns, it has since lost a third of its market value. Within the last two weeks, Zoom has had two class-action lawsuits filed against it alleging that the company purposely sacrificed customers’ safety and privacy for ease of use.
Zoom bombing
The first lawsuit, filed last week, claims that Zoom collected customers’ information and, without gaining their consent, shared it with third-party applications, such as Facebook. The second lawsuit, filed just a few days ago, alleges that a lack of end-to-end encryption allows unauthorized guests to gain access to a meeting in process, a phenomenon now known as “Zoom bombing.” It is such a serious concern that multiple government offices and private companies, both in the United States and around the world, have forbidden the use of the application for official business for fear of a leak of confidential information.
CEO’s apology
A senator from Colorado is among the vocal critics of the app. He asserts that the security flaws were the result of a deliberate decision on the company’s part to cut corners at the expense of security. The CEO of Zoom responded with an apology in which he claimed to take users’ privacy and security seriously and resolved to work his team “around-the-clock” to resolve the issues raised in the most recent lawsuit. The statement does not appear to specifically address the concerns that the first lawsuit raised about sharing customer data with third parties.
