Zoom Privacy Breach Class Action

Guese v Zoom Video Communications, Inc.

Murphy Battista LLP is co-counsel with Collette Parsons Corrin LLP on a national class action against Zoom Video Communications Inc. (“Zoom”) on behalf of all Canadian residents whose personal information was collected and/or disclosed by Zoom to a third party upon installation or opening of Zoom’s videoconferencing application (the “Zoom App”). It is alleged that the Zoom App was programmed to improperly disclose information about users to Facebook and potentially other third parties. It is also alleged that Zoom advertised its meetings app as being encrypted “end-to-end” at a time when the plaintiff contends it was not.

Users of Zoom may access its videoconferencing service through an app for iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system), android devices, or MacOS (Apple’s desktop and laptop operating system). In the Apple iOS app store, the Zoom App is called “ZOOM Cloud Meetings”.

On Zoom’s website, Zoom states:

You can trust us to connect you to the people that matter. We value that trust more than anything else. We want you to know what data we collect and how we use it to provide our service.

A link is provided to Zoom’s privacy policy. In Zoom’s privacy policy, Zoom purports to identify and disclose to its users all the information that Zoom automatically collects from its users when they use its videoconferencing services. In its privacy policy, Zoom addresses the measures it takes to protect its users’ personal data as follows:

Security of your Personal Data

Zoom is committed to protecting the Personal Data you share with us. We utilize a combination of industry-standard security technologies, procedures, and organizational measures to help protect your Personal Data from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure …

Despite Zoom’s representations and assurances, it included code in the Zoom App that disclosed users’ personal information to Facebook, and potentially other third parties. On March 26, 2020, Joseph Cox posted a report on a web-based news site called Motherboard, operated by Vice Media Group, revealing that the Zoom App contains code that makes unauthorized disclosure of users’ personal information to Facebook, even if the user does not have a Facebook account. This information includes the user’s device model, the time zone and city from which the user is connecting, the user’s phone carrier, and a unique advertiser identifier automatically created by the user’s device which can be used to target the user with advertisements. Click here to see the Motherboard news article.

On March 27, 2020, Zoom posted an entry to the blog on its website, admitting that the Zoom App was sending information to Facebook upon installation of the Zoom App and each time the Zoom App was opened. Zoom admitted that the unauthorized disclosures began when Zoom contracted with Facebook to implement a “Login with Facebook” feature using Facebook’s proprietary “software development kit”.

The class action seeks damages for Canadian residents whose privacy was breached by Zoom through the unauthorized disclosure of their personal information, as well as damages for Zoom’s alleged misrepresentations concerning end-to-end encryption.

Current Status

  • A consent certification hearing in this matter took place in Vancouver, British Columbia in April 2023.
  • A certification order was made on April 24, 2023.
  • A settlement approval hearing in this matter took place on June 12, 2023. The judge’s decision regarding settlement is currently on reserve.

Check back here for updates.

Who are the lawyers?

This class action is being pursued by a team of lawyers at Murphy Battista LLP, led by Angela Bespflug, Janelle O’Connor, and Caitlin Ohama-Darcus, and a team of lawyers from Collette Parsons Corrin LLP, led by Richard Parsons.

Who does the class action affect?

This class action is brought on behalf of all persons residing in Canada who, as of June 30, 2020, had a registered Zoom Meetings user account or a paid Zoom Meetings subscription, and who between April 1, 2018 and June 30, 2020 registered, used, opened, or downloaded the Zoom Meetings application, or paid money to Zoom for a Zoom Meetings subscription, except for Enterprise and Business Subscribers and End User Accounts as of June 30, 2020.

What should I do if I have been affected?

Please fill out the form on our co-counsel’s website: https://colletteparsons.com/zoom-privacy-breach-class-action/. You will be added to our database and kept apprised of developments.