Video conferencing platform Zoom has responded to online criticism and modified its terms of service after a recent update raised concerns over AI training using customer data. The update had allowed for AI training on customer content, prompting an online uproar. In a blog post, Zoom announced the changes, reassuring users that it will not employ audio, video, or chat customer content for training artificial intelligence models without obtaining user consent.
The alterations were prompted by a report from StackDiary that shed light on the changes, which were quietly introduced in March. The adjustments were perceived as providing Zoom with broad control over customer data for AI training purposes. In response to the concerns raised, Zoom explicitly clarified its intentions and actions.
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Zoom's Chief Product Officer, Smita Hashim, further mentioned that consent from account owners and administrators is necessary before data is shared for AI training. She clarified that the purpose of this data utilisation is solely to enhance the performance and accuracy of AI services. Hashim also assured users that their data would not be used for training third-party models, even if they choose to share it.
"We have permission to use this customer content to provide value-added services based on this content, but our customers continue to own and control their content. For example, a customer may have a webinar that they ask us to live stream on YouTube. Even if we use the customer video and audio content to Livestream, they own the underlying content," Hashim said.
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As part of the revisions, the company introduced a new section in its terms of service, which explicitly states that customer content will not be used to train artificial intelligence models without user consent. The company intends to empower account owners and administrators with control over their data usage and ensure transparency in the process.
Inputs from IANS
