Zoom recently announced a change in their iOS app to ensure the privacy of the users. As announced Zoom removed the Facebook SDK that shared iOS users’ data with Facebook. This change surfaced online after privacy concerns aroused for Zoom.
Zoom iOS Removed Facebook SDK
In a recent post, Zoom’s founder Eric S. Yuan announced a major change in the Zoom app for iOS. As revealed, they removed a Facebook SDK from the Zoom iOS client to stop sharing of users’ data with Facebook.
The announcement surfaced online right after an analysis by Motherboard. In that analysis, they disclosed how the app secretly shared users’ data with Facebook every time someone would open the app. This data sharing was so explicit that it even continued for users who do not have a Facebook account.
Neither Zoom specified this behavior in their privacy policy, nor did they inform users about such sharing of information. Consequently, it came as a shock for all iOS users.
Now, Zoom has addressed this issue by removing the Facebook SDK from the app’s “Login with Facebook” feature. Nonetheless, users may still log in to the app via their Facebook accounts.
How The SDK Worked
Explaining the details about the abandoned SDK, Yuan explained that it did not share any information regarding users’ activities. But it did share data related to the users’ device.
The information collected by the Facebook SDK did not include information and activities related to meetings such as attendees, names, notes, etc., but rather included information about devices such as the mobile OS type and version, the device time zone, device OS, device model and carrier, screen size, processor cores, and disk space.
In the post, Yuan has listed all the parameters that the SDK shared with Facebook.
They have now fixed the matter with the release of the latest version of the Zoom iOS app (v. 4.6.9). The change history clearly specifies “Improvements to Facebook Login”. Motherboard also confirmed the fix.
