Zoom Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, and AI

On August 6 2023, a tweet about Zoom’s terms of service and “training” what is popularly called machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) spread virally:

The Zoom Privacy Policy/AI Tweet

The popular tweet claimed that “Zoom terms of service now require you to allow AI to train on ALL your data—audio, facial recognition, private conversations—unconditionally and irrevocably, with no opt out.” A screenshot (with highlighted portions emphasized below) apparently showed Zoom’s AI training policies:

10.2 Service Generated Data; Consent to Use. Customer Content does not include any telemetry data, product usage data, diagnostic data, and similar content or data that Zoom collects or generates in connection with your or your End Users’ use of the Services or Software (“Service Generated Data”). As between you and Zoom, all right, title, and interest in and to Service Generated Data, and all Proprietary Rights therein, belong to and are retained solely by Zoom. You agree that Zoom compiles and may compile Service Generated Data based on Customer Content and use of the Services and Software. You consent to Zoom’s access, use, collection, creation, modification, distribution, processing, sharing, maintenance, and storage of Service Generated Data for any purpose, to the extent and in the manner permitted under applicable Law, including for the purpose of product and service development, marketing. analytics, quality assurance, machine learning or artificial intelligence (including for the purposes of training and tuning of algorithms and models), training. testing, improvement of the Services. Software, or Zoom’s other products, services, and software, or any combination thereof, and as otherwise provided in this Agreement. In furtherance of the foregoing, if, for any reason, there are any rights in such Service Generated Data which do not accrue to Zoom under this Section 10.2 or as otherwise provided in this Agreement, you hereby unconditionally and irrevocably assign and agree to assign to Zoom on your behalf. and you shall cause your End Users to unconditionally and irrevocably assign and agree to assign to Zoom, all right, title, and interest in and to the Service Generated Data, including all Proprietary Rights relating thereto.

Zoom’s Terms of Service in August 2023

An August 7 2023 reverse image search via Google Lens linked the screenshot’s text to a domain: explore.zoom.us/en/terms. Text at the top of the page indicated that the terms had an “effective date” of August 7 2023:

ZOOM TERMS OF SERVICE
Effective Date: August 7, 2023

Please read these terms of service (“Terms of Service”) and the Zoom Services Description (collectively, this “Agreement”) carefully. This Agreement is between you and Zoom Video Communications, Inc. and its affiliates (“Zoom,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) and governs your access to and use of our Services and Software. You may enter into this Agreement on behalf of yourself or on behalf of a legal entity. If you enter into this Agreement on behalf of a legal entity, you represent that you are a duly authorized representative with the authority to bind that legal entity to this Agreement. All references to “you” and “your” in this Agreement mean the person accepting this Agreement as an individual or the legal entity for which the representative is acting. Capitalized terms in this Agreement will have definitions as set forth in the applicable section where they are defined, in the Zoom Services Description, or in Section 34 below.

We may provide the Services and Software through Zoom Video Communications, Inc., our affiliate(s), or both. You may only use the Services and Software in accordance with the terms and subject to the conditions of this Agreement.

READ THIS AGREEMENT CAREFULLY, AS IT PROVIDES, AMONG OTHER THINGS: (i) in Section 27, that you and Zoom will arbitrate certain claims instead of going to court and that you will not bring class-action claims against Zoom; (ii) in Sections 12 and 14, that certain terms and conditions apply with respect to recurring subscription Charges and automatic renewals; (iii) in Section 15, that Zoom may make modifications, deletions, and additions to these Terms of Service and our Service Description; and (iv) in Section 26, that you release Zoom from, and waive your right to recover from Zoom, certain damages. You acknowledge that you will only create an account or otherwise use the Services and Software if you agree to be legally bound by all terms and conditions herein. Your acceptance of this Agreement creates a legally binding contract between you and Zoom.

Zoom’s terms of service continued in a numbered format, with “Customer Content” at number ten. In the screenshot, the section was “10.2,” and the corresponding section appeared to match the version in the tweet:

10.2 Service Generated Data; Consent to Use. Customer Content does not include any telemetry data, product usage data, diagnostic data, and similar content or data that Zoom collects or generates in connection with your or your End Users’ use of the Services or Software (“Service Generated Data”). As between you and Zoom, all right, title, and interest in and to Service Generated Data, and all Proprietary Rights therein, belong to and are retained solely by Zoom. You agree that Zoom compiles and may compile Service Generated Data based on Customer Content and use of the Services and Software. You consent to Zoom’s access, use, collection, creation, modification, distribution, processing, sharing, maintenance, and storage of Service Generated Data for any purpose, to the extent and in the manner permitted under applicable Law, including for the purpose of product and service development, marketing, analytics, quality assurance, machine learning or artificial intelligence (including for the purposes of training and tuning of algorithms and models), training, testing, improvement of the Services, Software, or Zoom’s other products, services, and software, or any combination thereof, and as otherwise provided in this Agreement. In furtherance of the foregoing, if, for any reason, there are any rights in such Service Generated Data which do not accrue to Zoom under this Section 10.2 or as otherwise provided in this Agreement, you hereby unconditionally and irrevocably assign and agree to assign to Zoom on your behalf, and you shall cause your End Users to unconditionally and irrevocably assign and agree to assign to Zoom, all right, title, and interest in and to the Service Generated Data, including all Proprietary Rights relating thereto.

A version of the page with a July 27 2023 “Effective Date” was archived on August 6 2023, the day the tweet was published. A version archived on April 2 2023 also contained the emphasized section.

However, the section about Zoom and AI training did not appear in a version of the page archived on December 1 2022. After comparing revisions between December 2022 and April 2023, we tracked down the date on which the change most likely occurred: March 31 2023.

Zoom, Privacy, and AI in the News

Financial news outlet CNBC was quick to report the Zoom AI training controversy, but inaccurately claimed the change was added on July 27 2023:

Zoom wants to train its artificial intelligence models using some of your data, according to recently updated terms of service.

The latest update to the video platform’s terms of service frontloads sections on software licensing, beta services and compliance, but if you read past that, the fine print seems to reveal a key decision in Zoom’s AI strategy. The update, effective as of July 27, establishes Zoom’s right to utilize some aspects of customer data for training and tuning its AI, or machine learning models.

The “service-generated data” that Zoom can now use to train its AI includes customer information on product usage, telemetry and diagnostic data and similar content or data collected by the company, and the company does not provide an opt-out option.

The rest of the article reiterated publicly available information about Zoom’s terms of service; The Verge also identified the changes as taking place in July 2023. Tech site Gizmodo’s “Zoom Contradicts Its Own Policy About Training AI on Your Data” correctly reported that the terms were changed in March 2023:

… [Zoom’s] policy changes flew under the radar until a post on the subject sparked outrage on the influential forum Hacker News over the weekend [of August 5 and 6 2023]. On Monday morning [August 7 2023], Zoom’s Chief Product Officer Smita Hashim published a blog post which says, essentially, that the company doesn’t do the things described in its Terms of Service. Hashim clarified that while the company does use data for some machine learning purposes, “For AI, we do not use audio, video, or chat content for training our models without customer consent.”

[…]

In a statement, a Zoom spokesperson said “Zoom customers decide whether to enable generative AI features, and separately whether to share customer content with Zoom for product improvement purposes.”

Zoom didn’t answer questions about “Service Generated Content,” which includes analytics data and basically everything other than the content of your video, audio, and chats. Zoom’s privacy policy says it can do all kinds of things with that data, including training AI. Gizmodo looked through Zoom’s settings and couldn’t find any way to opt out of allowing the company to train its AI on service generated content.

Gizmodo and The Verge linked to an August 7 2023 blog post by Zoom, “How Zoom’s terms of service and practices apply to AI features,” addressing the controversy. It displayed account owner interface images, and concluded (emphasis is Zoom’s):

To reiterate: we do not use audio, video, or chat content for training our models without customer consent.

We remain committed to transparency, and our aim is to provide you with the tools you need to make informed decisions about your Zoom account. We value your privacy and are continuously working to enhance our services while respecting your rights and preferences.

Thank you for being part of the Zoom community. Together, we’ll continue to create meaningful and seamless collaboration experiences through Zoom.

Summary

A Zoom, AI, and Terms of Service controversy began in August 2023, when references to Zoom terms of service changes about AI training and “customer content” began to circulate across platforms. At least two stories erroneously reported that Zoom made the changes in July 2023; archived versions and Zoom’s blog post confirmed that the change was in March 2023. The screenshots were real and unaltered (except for the highlighting), and accurately represented Zoom’s terms of service as of August 7 2023.