Alice Globus, head of Nanotronics, said AI could minimize the damage done by recent malware attacks, such as on hospitals and the Colonial Pipeline shutdown in 2021. We all know Zoom a little too well, the video conferencing platform that exploded in popularity during the pandemic. Today, it is the go-to platform for nearly every office, school, and organization alike. CLICK TO GET KURT'S FREE CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH SECURITY ALERTS, QUICK TIPS, TECH REVIEWS AND EASY HOW-TO'S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER However, it seems that in its rise to stardom, the company had tried to pull a bit of a fast one on its users, reportedly updating its Terms of Service on its website without sending an email notification to its users or explaining the changes in detail. Zoom's initial Terms of Service update First, Zoom updated its Terms of Service on March 31, 2023, but it actually took effect on July 27, 2023, and included a clause that appeared to some to allow Zoom to use user data and customer content for AI training purposes without customer consent.

Zoom has reversed course (again) and updated its terms of service after a backlash earlier this week. Following consumer blowback to a recently highlighted update to its terms which appeared to grant the platform the unlimited ability to use customer data to train AI models, it now says it will not use any consumer data to train AI models from Zoom or third parties. The previous wording said it wouldn't do so "without customer consent," which raised eyebrows since "consent" was (at best) a gray area for people joining a call (and acknowledging a pop-up) in which the meeting organizer enabled the feature and already agreed to the terms. Zoom's changes were listed in a preamble update to its previous blog post. "Following feedback received regarding Zoom's recently updated terms of service, particularly related to our new generative artificial intelligence features, Zoom has updated our terms of service and the below blog post to make it clear that Zoom does not use any of your audio, video, chat, screen-sharing, attachments, or other communications like customer content (such as poll results, whiteboard, and reactions) to train Zoom's or third-party artificial intelligence models," the notice reads.

For a while, Zoom was the most important company in America. Three years ago, the pandemic had forced offices to come up with extended remote-working arrangements, and Zoom became the indispensable videoconferencing platform of choice for millions of stuck-at-home Americans. This humble enterprise app was suddenly there for everything: work, school, social gatherings, activism, dating, telehealth, government hearings, funerals, sex parties, and pretty much anything else that made up life when everyone was locked indoors. Already a profitable company by the end of 2019, Zoom became a stock trader's dream after it landed on the NASDAQ in early 2020, growing its customer base by 470 percent, quadrupling its revenue (without paying any income tax, according to one report), and expanding its workforce throughout the year. Since then, as vaccination and reduced transmission allowed American enterprise to adjust back to normalish routines, Zoom has struggled to maintain its pandemic-era success.

Zoom has made changes to its terms of service after online blowback over recent updates to the company's fine print allowing AI training on customer data. A report from StackDiary over the weekend highlighted how the changes, which rolled out in March without fanfare, appeared to grant the company sweeping control over customer data for AI training purposes. In response, Zoom published a blog post today claiming it wouldn't do what its terms said it could do; the company then updated its terms in response to the continued blowback. It now says it doesn't train AI models on consumer video, audio or chats "without customer consent." At least part of the issue stemmed from Zoom's experimental AI tools, including IQ Meeting Summary (ML-powered summarizations) and IQ Team Chat Compose (AI-powered message drafting).