The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) may be looking into privacy concerns surrounding online video call software Zoom, Chairman Joseph Simons revealed.
Zoom has seen massive increases in usage since the coronavirus pandemic began and people have needed ways to stay in touch socially or for work.
But concerns have arisen about the way the company is using information from registered and unregistered users, which might be stored in the cloud, according to lawmakers who reported their concerns to Simons.
Zoom, perhaps unprepared for the mega-influx of new users utilizing it for everything from school to work, has been slammed for not properly encrypting its services in an end-to-end manner, thereby leaving doors open for bad actors.
But an FTC probe would not necessarily result in any charges or fines toward the company. Simons didn’t make any comments about the legitimacy of those concerns, except to say that the FTC is glad to take complaints about potential issues.
“If you’re reading about it (an issue) in the press, in the media, then you can be assured that we’re looking at it already or we will because of the media attention,” he said, according to Reuters. “If it’s out there in the media, we’re on it.”
The pandemic, as it forced people to retreat indoors and conduct everyday business, transactions, and socialization via digital means, has sped up a transition in society toward digital means. Physical retail and brick and mortar stores were already declining in lieu of more convenient Amazon or other eCommerce shopping.
But the coronavirus has brought awareness to companies like Zoom as well as online grocers like Instacart and Shipt, which people may not have ever used or even heard of before the pandemic.
The surging use of Zoom and other video-call apps has expanded to every sociable area of life, even including dating, as people try to continue having normal interactions without being able to see one another face-to-face.
This has led to the online dating industry seeing profitability even during quarantine, as users crave social interaction while spending all day at home.
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