'Zoom'ing into your Freedom of Expression

In weeks prior to the pandemic, people were deeply concerned about how their voices were muzzled, their expression of woes suppressed and how dissent was slowly dying out. I even attended an event where an evidently "high society" lady (absolutely no prejudices or presumptions) was deeply distressed on knowing (for the first time!) about Aadhaar and how personal information could be harvested. But then Covid19 brought in its wake something that was usually unknown to the conventional workplaces in India--the concept of "work from home" (WFH).

Conventional workplaces have believed in long hours at workplaces, fixed presence at work and fixed timings of work to gain acceptance as "working enough". On several occasions, these have been essentially exclusive conditions. Women with young children, differently abled people, primary care givers to infirm or otherwise special needs family members among others have faced immense challenges all along to fit into these brackets to be identified as "professional" enough. COVID19 pandemic changed this. Nearly all workplaces are now insisting on WFH. So they're now admitting to the fact that a flexible, inclusive approach was not really THAT out of reach.

WFH demanded an effective method of connecting with people at professional levels and Zoom.us became that option. The first three months of 2020, as the world rapidly went into lockdown, Zoom.us saw a spike of 67 per cent in its usage. With the services it offers, Zoom practically caters to all requirements of conducting classes, remote conferencing with workplaces or medical practitioners to managing blind dates and houseparties. In fact PM of the UK, Boris Johnson conducted cabinet meetings over Zoom.

It is therefore pertinent that we focus on certain extremely serious issues about Zoom that have concerned tech experts globally. Most of us, users, do not really have a choice with regards to the platform they use to remote conference. So our dissent gets diluted right there. Then again, most of us do not bother to read the privacy policies of the platform. So our "informed opinions" are not as informed after all. Let us "Zoom" into our concerns:

Tech experts have clearly stated that Zoom "might not be the best choice for privacy conscious users". 

Zoom collects and stores data-- even personal data--and shares it with third parties (read advertisers). The company does not call it 'sell' to keep it broad and ambiguous for the naive, unsuspecting users. So what advertisements you see will be defined on your screens thereon would/ could be based on the choice of words/ terms you have used in your webinar.

Zoom is known to share data with Facebook... Even if you do not have an account with them. Why, you ask? You could have asked them while you signed up. Chances are they would not respond at all. 

Zoom has access to user content... So knowingly or unknowingly your sessions could have been recorded, your instant messages, cloud recordings, whiteboards compromised. Also, Zoom/ host of the meeting could record and/ or transcript the sessions. So the exchanges of who said what could be accessed at a later date/ time by individuals who are not even present at the meeting. (Did you gulp? Good.) 

Zoom excessively empowers the meeting host... Students, employees, interviewees, patients have their data, browsing history, IP addresses, health conditions an extremely sensitive information compromised right away. The meeting host can access all this information and users are unknowingly under constant surveillance even while away from the workplaces. (Consent, do you say? Did you not give it when you accepted the T&C when you signed up with Zoom without reading them?)

Do Zoom's features get any better? Most certainly... Zoom offers "attention tracking". So if you click away from an active Zoom session for more than 30 seconds, the meeting host could get a ping, if on a corporate account. 

The algorithms and AI could be tweaked enough to ensure facial and object recognition. That is the reason why tech experts ask you to keep your video preferably off and if they is not possible to at least change the backdrop (Zoom offers the feature) to something neutral. Your books in the shelves could give you and your preferences away, you know? (More on THIS sometime soon.)

No wonder then, that another blogger stated that Zoom "lives like a vampire off the blood of human data". So the next time you talk about your Freedom of Expression, do remember this blog and rethink how free you actually are while you express yourselves.