In a preliminary settlement of charges that the video conferencing provider deceived customers about the level of protection for meetings, federal regulators are asking Zoom to improve its security.
The Federal Trade Commission announced the deal Monday. Zoom has been accused of deceiving consumers about encryption since at least 2016 in a lawsuit lodged by the agency. It said the business kept on to cryptographic keys that allowed it to access content from the meetings of its clients, and protected meetings with a lower degree of encryption of privacy than it offered customers.
“The regulators argued that Zoom was “engaged in a number of dishonest and discriminatory activities that threatened its users’ welfare.
Under the deal, Zoom Video Communications Inc., headquartered in San Jose , California, will be expected to take specific steps, such as creating a privacy vulnerability resolution policy. It will be appropriate for company employees to check all programme changes for security vulnerabilities.
The vote was 3-2 to propose the resolution, with Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, two Democratic commissioners of the FTC, opposing because it would not include refunds or other redress for impacted consumers. For a maximum of 30 days, the plan will be open to public comment, during which the Department will determine whether to make it final.
