zlacker

[parent] [thread] 39 comments
1. jxf+(OP)[view] [source] 2023-08-06 14:08:11
edit: I'm retracting my earlier comment. Earlier I wrote that the headline didn't seem to match what was in the TOS, since OP never mentioned which part they're concerned about.

I'm now assuming the part they don't like is §10.4(ii):

> 10.4 Customer License Grant. You agree to grant and hereby grant Zoom a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license and all other rights required or necessary to redistribute, publish, import, access, use, store, transmit, review, disclose, preserve, extract, modify, reproduce, share, use, display, copy, distribute, translate, transcribe, create derivative works, and process Customer Content and to perform all acts with respect to the Customer Content: [...] _(ii) for the purpose of product and service development, marketing, analytics, quality assurance, machine learning, artificial intelligence, training, testing, improvement of the Services, Software, or Zoom’s other products, services, and software, or any combination thereof_

Notice that 10.4(ii) says they can use Customer Content "for ... machine learning, artificial intelligence, training", which is certainly allowing training on user content.

replies(12): >>gunapo+F >>westco+81 >>jsnell+32 >>throwa+q2 >>j45+A2 >>dennya+q3 >>pseudo+i4 >>Terret+Z4 >>proxif+ec >>neltne+yw >>Animat+sY >>brunes+hg4
2. gunapo+F[view] [source] 2023-08-06 14:11:38
>>jxf+(OP)
Good catch jxf! but what is that boundary line between SGD and Customer Input/Content? Is it blurry or clearly defined? It seems like things like translations or future enhancements might fall into that area (it also seems like training AI on diags isn't as useful), so this might be expanded in the future now that they have that language in place.
replies(1): >>westco+D2
3. westco+81[view] [source] 2023-08-06 14:14:09
>>jxf+(OP)
You will have to excuse me if I don’t trust a company that kicks off users at the behest of the PRC!

https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/11/zoom-admits-to-shutting-do...

Quibbles over the definition of phrases like “Customer Content” and “Service Generated Data” are designed to obfuscate meaning and confuse readers to think that the headline is wrong. It is not wrong. This company does what it wants to, obviously, given it’s complicity with a regime that is currently engaging in genocide.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037.amp

Why do you trust them to generate an AI model of your appearance and voice that could be used to destroy your life? I don’t.

replies(2): >>jxf+w1 >>throwa+I2
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4. jxf+w1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 14:15:37
>>westco+81
I'm not rendering an opinion here about the trustworthiness of Zoom. I'm simply saying that the plain reading of the TOS is the opposite of what the headline on this post claims.
replies(1): >>westco+f3
5. jsnell+32[view] [source] 2023-08-06 14:18:52
>>jxf+(OP)
But it is saying that your customer content may be used for training AI, in 10.4:

> 10.4 Customer License Grant. You agree to grant and hereby grant Zoom a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license and all other rights required or necessary to redistribute, publish, import, access, use, store, transmit, review, disclose, preserve, extract, modify, reproduce, share, use, display, copy, distribute, translate, transcribe, create derivative works, and process Customer Content and to perform all acts with respect to the Customer Content: (i) as may be necessary for Zoom to provide the Services to you, including to support the Services; (ii) for the purpose of product and service development, marketing, analytics, quality assurance, machine learning, artificial intelligence, [...]

replies(3): >>j45+K2 >>jxf+u7 >>kortex+v7
6. throwa+q2[view] [source] 2023-08-06 14:21:05
>>jxf+(OP)
> But it doesn't say that Customer Content is being used to train AI; it says that Zoom can do whatever it wants with Service Generated Data.

Customer recordings are service generated content.

7. j45+A2[view] [source] 2023-08-06 14:21:39
>>jxf+(OP)
Except it’s a few steps away from customer input and customer content.

Sounds like it can eventually include chats during a call.

Sounds like it can eventually include the files of your meeting recordings in its processing, since it is a file. A call recording stored to your zoom cloud can be a form of service generated data from calls.

And sounds like it include transcripts of live audio could also function as service generated data (was the audio clear? Could ai convert speech to text?)

The statistics of calls could turn into the wavelengths of the audio and video in real time. Gotta keep an eye on the quality with AI.

My only question is if this include the paid users?

If so, I had been meaning to move on from Zoom as a paid customer and this may have done it.

It’s not end to end encryption if Zoom can tap into your files on your cloud or computer. Or let you pretend you are providing the other party with encryption when they aren’t safe. Corporate information is valuable to some.

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8. westco+D2[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 14:22:05
>>gunapo+F
It is defined not at all. Sorry if this is bad for your investment decisions, jxf, but this company is not trustworthy.
replies(1): >>jxf+m8
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9. throwa+I2[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 14:22:24
>>westco+81
Well it’s a Chinese company. So they are beholden to the CCP.
replies(1): >>eh9+km
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10. j45+K2[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 14:22:32
>>jsnell+32
Wow. I hope the op just didn’t read that far.
replies(1): >>TheRea+Yh
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11. westco+f3[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 14:25:19
>>jxf+w1
The definition of phrases like “Customer Content” and “Service Generated Data” are unclear. It is disingenuous to say that the headline is the “opposite” of what the headline suggests.

You really think that the engineers in China are not actively working on developing AI models of users without using a lot of user content to feed the model? Doubtful. Hiding behind ill-defined terms has the fingerprints of an Orwellian regime. I think I know which one.

12. dennya+q3[view] [source] 2023-08-06 14:26:40
>>jxf+(OP)
> You agree that Zoom compiles and may compile Service Generated Data based on Customer Content and use of the Services and Software.

This clause reads like the distinction is less about the contents and more about zoom's rights to use any content

13. pseudo+i4[view] [source] 2023-08-06 14:31:35
>>jxf+(OP)
And I'm supposed to trust then? The company that recently disabled security controls of the OS as a growth hacking technique?
14. Terret+Z4[view] [source] 2023-08-06 14:36:27
>>jxf+(OP)
Since this is a legal language discussion, worth noting your quoted portion might not say what you said it explicitly says:

> Service Generated Data; Consent to Use. Customer Content does not include any telemetry data, product usage data, diagnostic data, and similar content or data that Zoom collects or generates in connection with your or your End Users’ use of the Services or Software (“Service Generated Data”).

Notice that Service Generated Data quite explicitly doesn't include Customer Content.

On the contrary, it says Customer Content doesn't include service generated data. So you don't have rights to the telemetry or anything else they collect.

It does not say Service Generated Data doesn't include their own copies of customer content, which could be a part of "data Zoom collects .. in connection with your .. use".

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15. jxf+u7[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 14:50:04
>>jsnell+32
You're right. I retracted the comment and edited to reflect this point.
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16. kortex+v7[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 14:50:07
>>jsnell+32
> You agree to grant and hereby grant

I get that legalese is like human-interpretable pseudocode, but like, is there really no better way to word this? How can you grant without agreeing to grant?

> import, access, use, store, transmit, review, disclose, preserve, extract, modify, reproduce, share, use, display, copy, distribute, translate, transcribe, create derivative works

Wow this cover of Daft Punk - Technologic sucks.

I, for one, do not welcome our dystopian overlords, but am at a loss to what I can do about it. I try to use Jitsi or anything not-zoom whenever possible, but it's rarely my pick.

replies(5): >>kitchi+S8 >>rolph+Y9 >>SoftTa+ub >>angled+lf >>dctoed+jq
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17. jxf+m8[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 14:54:43
>>westco+D2
I don't have any positions in Zoom (although I did have some puts last year that I've since closed out).
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18. kitchi+S8[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 14:57:09
>>kortex+v7
> How can you grant without agreeing to grant?

I think it's more that they're being explicit about the logical AND in that sentence. You agree to grant, AND grant them the permission.

I think it's a technicality about it being a "user agreement" so they probably have to use the word agree for certain clauses.

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19. rolph+Y9[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 15:02:31
>>kortex+v7
set yourself up with a couple of vices [coffee, smokes] and have look here, for things you can do:

>>37022623 [a number of links regarding how to play with bots and bork training by"malforming" your inputs]

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20. SoftTa+ub[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 15:10:59
>>kortex+v7
And after that litany of very specific things, "and to perform all acts with respect to the Customer Content." Couldn't the whole paragraph just have been that phrase?
replies(1): >>psunav+cz
21. proxif+ec[view] [source] 2023-08-06 15:15:41
>>jxf+(OP)
Who in their right mind would use Zoom as a service. My employees will never connect to another conference call with a third party that uses zoom again, ever.
replies(1): >>hairof+Tc
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22. hairof+Tc[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 15:19:44
>>proxif+ec
I appreciate your sentiment but sometimes there’s immense pressure to use it because it’s what everyone else is using, and refusing would cause a meeting to be disrupted (or force you not to attend).
replies(1): >>neltne+Hx
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23. angled+lf[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 15:35:05
>>kortex+v7
To whom at Zoom do we send the eDiscovery (and litigation hold) requests? My goodness.
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24. TheRea+Yh[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 15:51:54
>>j45+K2
hitting "search" in your browser and typing "artificial intelligence" doesn't really require reading the whole thing ;)
replies(1): >>j45+Do
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25. eh9+km[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 16:16:00
>>throwa+I2
Zoom? A company publicly traded on the Nasdaq and funded in San Jose, CA?
replies(2): >>qingch+Iy >>throwa+Ex1
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26. j45+Do[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 16:26:31
>>TheRea+Yh
Seemed odd that there was so much details refuting it on the points prior to 10.4

Maybe its just a coincidence.

Or maybe it’s two angles perfectly coinciding.

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27. dctoed+jq[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 16:35:14
>>kortex+v7
>> You agree to grant and hereby grant

"Hereby grant" means the grant is (supposedly) immediately effective even for future-arising rights — and thus would take precedence (again, supposedly) over an agreement to grant the same rights in the future. [0]

(In the late oughts, this principle resulted in the biotech company Roche Molecular becoming a part-owner of a Stanford patent, because a Stanford researcher signed a "visitor NDA" with Roche that included present-assignment language, whereas the researcher's previous agreement with Stanford included only future-assignment language. The Stanford-Roche lawsuit on that subject went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.)

[0] https://toedtclassnotes.site44.com/Notes-on-Contract-Draftin...

replies(1): >>mafuy+vo1
28. neltne+yw[view] [source] 2023-08-06 17:05:09
>>jxf+(OP)
Yeah, I saw some people posting screenshots of 10.2 and was thinking maybe it was just exaggeration for clicks, but 10.4 is horrifying. Customer Content as defined in 10.1:

"10.1 Customer Content. You or your End Users may provide, upload, or originate data, content, files, documents, or other materials (collectively, “Customer Input”) in accessing or using the Services or Software, and Zoom may provide, create, or make available to you, in its sole discretion or as part of the Services, certain derivatives, transcripts, analytics, outputs, visual displays, or data sets resulting from the Customer Input (together with Customer Input, “Customer Content”); provided, however, that no Customer Content provided, created, or made available by Zoom results in any conveyance, assignment, or other transfer of Zoom’s Proprietary Rights contained or embodied in the Services, Software, or other technology used to provide, create, or make available any Customer Content in any way and Zoom retains all Proprietary Rights therein. You further acknowledge that any Customer Content provided, created, or made available to you by Zoom is for your or your End Users’ use solely in connection with use of the Services, and that you are solely responsible for Customer Content."

replies(1): >>neodyp+fJ
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29. neltne+Hx[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 17:10:25
>>hairof+Tc
But sometimes legal has the trump card in terms of dictating company policy, and having confidential information laundered into the public domain via training on "customer content" seems like a very red line.
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30. qingch+Iy[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 17:14:55
>>eh9+km
Surprised me too...

"The company has previously acknowledged that much of its technology development is conducted in China and security concerns from governments abound."

https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/11/zoom-admits-to-shutting-do...

replies(1): >>jrockw+0V
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31. psunav+cz[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 17:17:07
>>SoftTa+ub
Not a lawyer, but generally when whole paragraphs aren't "that phrase" it's because people read loopholes into "that phrase."
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32. neodyp+fJ[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 18:12:46
>>neltne+yw
Yikes, and to think some schools force people to use Zoom...
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33. jrockw+0V[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 19:27:44
>>qingch+Iy
The wording of things in the preferences dialog has always convinced me that it's not primarily developed in the US.
34. Animat+sY[view] [source] 2023-08-06 19:47:23
>>jxf+(OP)
Notice that "marketing" is in there. Microsoft claims the right to listen in on all your Zoom calls and use that data for marketing purposes.
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35. mafuy+vo1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 22:15:25
>>dctoed+jq
Yes, but the parent commenter noticed that and wondered about the other part, the "agree to grant" part. Simply "hereby grant" should suffice.
replies(1): >>dctoed+ur1
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36. dctoed+ur1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 22:38:28
>>mafuy+vo1
> Simply "hereby grant" should suffice.

Not necessarily — in some circumstances, the law might not recognize a present-day grant of an interest that doesn't exist now but might come into being in the future. (Cf. the Rule Against Perpetuities. [1])

The "hereby grants and agrees to grant" language is a fallback requirement — belt and suspenders, if you will.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_against_perpetuities

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37. throwa+Ex1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-06 23:25:46
>>eh9+km
Its CEO has ties to the CCP, development is all done in China. Just because it has a company registered and claims to be founded in San Jose doesn’t mean it’s not a Chinese company.
replies(1): >>throw3+KH1
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38. throw3+KH1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-07 00:55:12
>>throwa+Ex1
By that logic, Apple is also a Chinese company.
replies(1): >>throwa+e92
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39. throwa+e92[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-08-07 05:02:49
>>throw3+KH1
Apple only assembled products in China. Almost none of the iPhone is made in China. They do no development in China. They didn’t start the company in China. They run the app store and iCloud storage separately in China.

So by that logic. No.

40. brunes+hg4[view] [source] 2023-08-07 18:23:34
>>jxf+(OP)
You are misreading and misunderstanding this whole paragraph.

The purpose of 10.4 is to allow zoom to send your call to other services, like say YouTube for live streaming, or any of the dozens of other services that integrate with their APIs. Without 10.4, three quarters or more of Zooms use cases would no longer work.

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