The Zoom app for iOS shares a lot of user data with Facebook, even if they don’t have an account on the social network. Here’s how to fix it
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the resulting quarantine, millions of people have discovered new apps for chatting and making video calls: HouseParty, Google Meet and especially Zoom are experiencing truly stellar install growth rates. And as more and more people use an app, it’s increasingly likely that someone will notice a big privacy problem.
This time it’s the turn of Zoom, a video calling app that apparently shares a lot of its users’ personal data with the Facebook group. The problem is limited on the one hand, because it affects only those who use Zoom from the iOS app, but it’s very serious because it also affects those who don’t even have a Facebook profile. Yes, you got it right: if you use Zoom on iOS, and you don’t have a Facebook profile, the app will still transmit quite a bit of your personal data to Facebook. This is, in essence, a half-bug and the fix is coming with an update to the Zoom app for iOS. Update that is already available and that everyone should install.
Zoom shares data with Facebook, that’s why
We said that the data sharing between Zoom and Facebook is the result of some sort of bug. It all depends on the fact that an SDK (Software Development Kit, a block of pre-compiled code to implement standard functions) written by Facebook has been integrated into Zoom’s code. This SDK is used to allow you to log into Zoom with your Facebook profile. The problem is that this SDK is implemented badly, because it communicates to Facebook the user’s data even if the user, not having a profile on the social network, has not logged in with his Facebook data. The solution found by Zoom developers was the only one possible: remove the spying SDK from the code and write from scratch the part of the app needed to login to Zoom via the Facebook profile (if you have one).
What data Zoom communicates to Facebook
The alarm about data sharing between Zoom and Facebook is not exaggerated at all, because among the shared data there is a bit of everything and there is a lot that should remain private. If we use Zoom, in fact, Facebook will come to know what device we have, our geographic location and even our phone operator. All this, we repeat, even if we’ve never had a Facebook profile. Updating the Zoom app, then, is essential.