Privacy and Zoom

There are many aspects associated with privacy and using a technology platform, especially one that is a visual medium. 

  • Line of Sight/Sound - when conducting a session or a class, please be mindful of those who might be in the background of your video, or who might be within range of hearing your conversation.

  • Posting Screenshots on Social Media - when conducting a session or a class, there have been some tendencies to take screen shots of the participants and then post these graphics on social media.  While the excitement and passion our community is sharing with each other is admirable, please be mindful of those within the picture who may not have provided adequate permission to do so.  Also, please be judicious in terms of what is being shared within these posts - the more information provided (class name, number, date, time, names of participants) the more risk that these data components could be used by data aggregation companies.  With face recognition and data analytics platform uses on the rise, these items could feed directly into those traps.

  • Sensitive or Confidential Meetings - when using Zoom for meetings that have sensitive/confidential requirements and are of a large size that the host cannot effectively validate that each participant's presence is appropriate (30+), it is recommended that the host/creator create a password for the meeting when creating the session.  This task is relatively easy to perform - within the Zoom interface there is an option to create a password for the meeting in question.  The host/creator would distribute the link to the meeting and the password through separate messaging.  This extra step will help to ensure that those present on the calls are supposed to be there.  This process is really effective for larger meetings where the host/creator is not able to keep track of the roster of participants in an effective manner, but the content of the meeting is confidential.

  • Finally, there have been some discussions in various fora related to the way in which Zoom (like other media companies) use, and potentially sell, user data. Many internet services track the use of their platforms for the purposes of advertising and/or improving their platform offering. Western's contract with Zoom prohibits the selling of our community's data to third parties. Specifically of note, Zoom has recently made changes in the way their Apple IOS app makes use of the Facebook login feature, in order to better protect our private data.

    NOTE: The “free” consumer version of Zoom may still be sharing data, so please check your end user license agreement and verify you are using Western’s licensed version.

Foro more information, please visit: Zoom Privacy Policy – https://zoom.us/privacy


Published on  and maintained in Cascade.