Video conferencing app Zoom to stop sending data to Facebook

San Francisco Mar 29: Popular video conferencing app Zoom has updated its iOS app to remove the software development kit (SDK) that was providing users data to Facebook through the Login with Facebook feature.

Earlier this week, a network traffic analysis carried out by Motherboard said that Zoom for iOS was sending data to Facebook without making any mention of the practice in its privacy policy.

“Zoom takes its users’ privacy extremely seriously. We originally implemented the ‘Login with Facebook’ feature using the Facebook SDK in order to provide our users with another convenient way to access our platform. However, we were recently made aware that the Facebook SDK was collecting unnecessary device data,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying in a MacRumors report on Saturday.

“We will be removing the Facebook SDK and reconfiguring the feature so that users will still be able to login with Facebook via their browser. Users will need to update to the latest version of our application once it becomes available in order for these changes to take hold, and we encourage them to do so,” the spokesperson added.

Zoom has become popular as a video conferencing solution for both work and more social settings owing to the new coronavirus pandemic as most people are now working from home globally.

Some of the collaboration tools that have gained increased traction due to remote working in India include Zoom.

Zoom also has several offerings for educators, learners, as well as those working from home.