Video conferencing firm Zoom has agreed to pay $86 million (£61.9 million) to settle a class action privacy lawsuit in the US.
The lawsuit had alleged that Zoom invaded the privacy of millions of users by sharing private information to Facebook, Google and LinkedIn. It also accused Zoom of misstating that it offered end-to-end encryption and for failure to prevent hackers from ‘zoombombing’ sessions. The firm has denied any wrongdoing but has agreed to boost security practices.
The preliminary settlement, which also includes a provision that Zoom will provide its staff specialised training in data handling and privacy, is still subject to approval by US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California.
This is one of the many lawsuits that the US-based video-conferencing platform. The class-action lawsuit was filed in March 2020 in the US District Court in the Northern District of California. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Zoom Meetings paid subscribers nationwide, as well as free users.
According to the plaintiff’s lawyers, Zoom has generated $1.3 billion in revenues off if their subscription. If the proposed settlement be approved, the subscribers in the class action will be eligible for 15% refunds on their subscription or $25, whichever is larger while the other could receive up to $15. The plaintiff’s lawyers are also seeking $21.3 million in legal fees from Zoom.
