Zoom removes overreaching Facebook data collection from its iOS app

Video conferencing app Zoom is enjoying a huge spike in users as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as massive swathes of the world's workforce work from home at the same time. 

• What is Zoom and how does it work? Plus tips and tricks

You would likely expect that such a rise to popularity might bring some road-bumps along the way, though, and Zoom has announced that one such issue has been cleared.

A report from Motherboard last week revealed that its iOS app was sending data to Facebook that users might not realise they'd released, even if they didn't use a Facebook account to log into Zoom.

Zoom has now clarified that this was a result of its use of Facebook's SDK, or Software Development Kit, and clarified that it did not realise the extra data was being collected or sent, in a blog post from its CEO, Eric S Yuan. 

As the post details, the SDK wasn't just collecting information about the meetings being held, but also details such as the user's mobile device, time zone, screen size and more, which Zoom agrees was not necessary.

Updated and removed

It's clear that the conferencing company isn't thrilled with this revelation, as it's now updated the iOS version of Zoom to remove the Facebook SDK entirely, letting users log in via a browser if they wish to link their Facebook and Zoom accounts. 

The blog post concludes with an apology to any users who might feel let down by the data collection while it was being carried out, and indeed a note of thanks to Motherboard reporter Joseph Cox for his work in uncovering the mistake. 

You can download the updated version of Zoom for iOS from the App Store now, if you're concerned about Facebook continuing to harvest data from your current version of the app. 

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