Zoom Expands In-Product Privacy Notifications

Last month, we announced new in-product privacy notifications designed to make it easier for our users to understand who can see, save, and share their content and information when they join Zoom Meetings. These notifications were created to provide important information without disrupting the frictionless experience our users love. We have now added additional notice and consent options in the product update launched this week — which you can learn more about below.

Users on the latest version of the Zoom client will now receive notice about who can see their registration information and how it is used before they consent to participate in meetings and webinars that require registration. When registering, users will receive prominent notice that the event host can see personal information that users choose to provide during registration, and that the host may use this information under the host’s terms and privacy policy. We provide this notice so that users can make an informed choice before registering for an event.

In the latest product update, users will be notified when a meeting they are in is being recorded or livestreamed, along with information about who can see and share the recording and livestream. The user can consent to stay in the meeting or to leave the meeting if they wish. In addition, users joining a recorded meeting in progress will have their audio and video automatically muted until they click “continue” in the dialog box. These notices will be displayed to all guests joining a meeting or livestream outside the account’s organization, regardless of the account owner’s settings. 

With this product update, users will see a prominent notification at the top of their Zoom profile page that information included in their profile settings — such as their name, profile picture, and email address — may be visible to other meeting participants. The notification also reminds users that, if they are signed into Zoom, this information may also be accessed by the account owner and any hosts of meetings and webinars they join. The account owner and other participants can share this information with apps and others.

We are excited about Zoom’s app ecosystem, which will provide many new experiences for our users and help enable the next generation of collaboration. We want to make sure our users are empowered to make informed decisions, in context, about if and how they participate in that collaboration, knowing that other users or account owners may choose to share user content and information with third-party apps.

In a future update, users will see privacy notifications when a meeting host or another meeting participant uses an app that can access real-time content during a meeting. These apps can range from scheduling tools to transcription services — and soon, any participant will be able to install apps that make their Zoom experience more productive, efficient, and seamless. Although account owners and participants can share content and information at any time, the Active Apps Notifier will let users know when a host or other participant is using an app that can access real-time content during that meeting. For example, a user may be using a transcription app that obtains a real time audio feed to transcribe the meeting contents. Other participants will be able to see which user is using the app and to click on the app to learn more about the types of information the app can access before, during and after the meeting.

At Zoom, we are continually working to enhance our platform and policies to meet the needs of our users. We are excited to roll out these new product education tools. You can find additional information about today’s changes in this support article, and we will continue to update our Help Center as we roll out new product education tools. We will also be updating our privacy statement in the next few weeks to include additional detail about our privacy practices.

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*Users will see the term “account owner” in many of the recently rolled out notifications. As a reminder, the account owner is the individual or organization who sets up an account (like a company that obtains a license to use Zoom in its workplace).