#Zoom just changed their terms and conditions to include using anyone's video and audio for training #AI with no option for opting out. You too can help train #deepfake s!
Living with a disabled spouse, I used Zoom a lot to get through the ongoing global pandemic.
What alternatives are out there for remote teaching/meetings? #BoycottZoom
It looks to me like they are saying we don't use your audio and video to train AI, but we can if you consent (and consent might be presumed by agreeing to the Terms of Service).
Furthermore, the opt-out features they highlight are only opting out from using (not training) their machine learning models.
Further furthermore, if I am not mistaken, this blog post has no legal authority. If they want to clarify the terms of service, they need to rewrite the terms of service to be clearer, including exclusions. #Zoom
Specifically, they added a sentence after paragraph 10.4:
"Notwithstanding the above, Zoom will not use audio, video or chat Customer Content to train our artificial intelligence models without your consent."
It remains for lawyers to parse out whether "consent" is implied by agreeing to the terms of service, or requires a separate action, and whether "your" is user-level or company-level. I am not a lawyer.
@MedievalMideast more important is that the agreement requires you to waive class actions-- and so they can otherwise break any other part of the contract without worry over being held civilly liable. We need legislation on this topic, not self-policing from tech monopolies.
@MedievalMideast@kcarruthers Zoom needs to find some EU lawyers quick. The Digital Rights Ireland judgment by the CJEU specifically acknowledged that call metadata was also personal data, and could be sensitive personal data- requiring an Art 6 and sometimes an Art 9 legal basis as well.
The state defendants in the DRI case also argued that they didn’t retain content data.
Relevant section is 10.4, which lumps in machine learning training with the rest of the broad license to use customer content for the purposes of "product and service development."
@MedievalMideast I've messaged whereby.com to confirm that they aren't doing this. (They're Norwegian, so already subject to better data privacy laws than US-based Zoom.) I'll report back when I hear from them.
@MedievalMideast i used BigBlueButton and Jitsi for teaching. BBB is somewhat hard to set up. But there are free hosted servers like "Senfcall". Jitsi is OK to set up, and is pretty good for small group calls. There's also OpenTalk which is the new kid on the block, but I have only very little first hand experience with it. Looks good, though!
@MedievalMideast Skype works well for one-to-one audio/video/screensharing.
There's a free consumer version of Microsoft teams, haven't tried it but the business version works well for meetings.
@Kay@MedievalMideast we've been offering pro-bono access to BigBlueButton (which is Zoom's equal) since the start of Covid... No limits on meeting duration, supports up to a couple hundred concurrent users, has breakout rooms, recording, and many other features. Ours is hosted here in Aotearoa, thanks to generous sponsorship from CatalystCloud.nz. Do you want access? If so, DM me your email for an invite. I can't understand why anyone would use Zoom instead of BBB.
@Kay@lightweight@MedievalMideast
Thanks for the heads up everyone, I’m now looking at BigBlueButton for the membership organisation where I am the video conferencing coordinator. I reckon we’ll want to ditch Zoom.
@lightweight@Kay@MedievalMideast I will have to let my lovely therapist know. I think she will be horrified to learn private patient conversations are being used to train AI
@MedievalMideast I could say Teams, but they're a Microsoft product. I haven't heard of other platforms for videoconferencing, but I'll keep an eye open...
@TDP4@MedievalMideast I'm currently using both. While I like the ability to insert my own background and effects on Zoom, Teams seems like it's easier to connect with...
@MedievalMideast
I use Matrix with the Jitsi plugin. Full end-to-end encrypted setup. Open source, free, and they couldn't even grab your stream even if they wanted without compromising their whole schtick.
For me, it's also about having persistent chat logs after a meeting or class. Feel free to skip it if all you need is a one-off VOIP session with Jitsi.
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