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Zoom has made changes to its AI strategy—twice.
The video conferencing platform updated its terms of service to establish the right to use some user-level data to train its artificial intelligence/machine-learning models, without giving customers the option to opt out.
Soon after a public outcry, the platform made more changes to its terms of service.
Top line
As of July 27, Zoom’s revised TOS said it could collect and use “service-generated data” related to product usage, telemetry and diagnostics to train AI models. It did not give users the option to opt out.
After drawing criticism from privacy experts on social media earlier today, Zoom updated its TOS to quell public concerns. Zoom admins could now choose whether or not their data from meetings can be used “improve the performance and accuracy of these AI services.”
“We’ve updated our terms of service to further confirm that we will not use audio, video or chat customer content to train our artificial intelligence models without your consent,” a Zoom spokesperson told Adweek.
However, the new update by Zoom is still unclear on how it will ask for consent, “and if they do so in a way that will highlight this exposure of information,” according to Violet Sullivan, vp of client engagement for Redpoint Cybersecurity and a privacy law professor at Baylor Law School.
Between the lines
Zoom’s policy changes come amid a growing public discourse on the ethical boundaries of artificial intelligence models being trained using people’s data, whether aggregated or anonymized.
Earlier in June, Zoom launched two generative AI offerings—a meeting summary tool and a tool for composing chat messages—made available on a free trial basis for customers, who can decide whether or not to use them.
However, when a person agrees to enable Zoom’s features, the platform also requests users’ consent to allow the collection of their data to train its AI models.
The TOS states that customers consent to Zoom’s access, use, collection, creation, modification, distribution, processing, sharing, maintenance and storage of service-generated data for “any purpose,” including “machine learning or artificial intelligence (including for the purposes of training and tuning of algorithms and models).”
In another section of its TOS, the company states that customers “agree to grant and hereby grant Zoom a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable license” to use their data for “product and service development,” including machine learning and artificial intelligence models.
Zoom’s new requirements could have big implications, especially within the telehealth field subject to stringent privacy laws.
“We will not use customer content, including education records or protected health information, to train our artificial intelligence models without [user] consent,” a Zoom spokesperson told Adweek.
