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Updated on October 13, 2021
Published on April 19, 2021
We are proud to provide a service that helps so many people stay connected — from business meetings to fitness classes to family reunions — and we are always working to improve and evolve our platform to meet our users’ diverse needs.
In the product update launched today, users will see new in-product notifications designed to make it easier to understand who can see, save, and share their content and information when they join meetings and experiences hosted on Zoom. These notices are designed to help users make informed decisions about how they use Zoom without disrupting the frictionless Zoom experience our users count on.
Zoom users have the ability to save and share content from Zoom Meetings through the use of certain features, such as “chat” or “record,” depending on the account owner’s settings. In many cases, the organization or account hosting the meeting can view content and information for meetings and webinars hosted on their account. And the account owner and other participants can share content and information with others, including apps that they use.
We are using the opportunity of this product update to embed feature-specific privacy notifications into the Zoom experience that help people understand, in context, who may be able to see and share the content and information that they share on Zoom. For example, if a user wants to know who can see the messages they send in Zoom's chat feature, they can go to "Who can see your messages?" to learn who can access messages they send to Everyone, as well as private messages they send:
The information in the notification varies based on the feature and circumstances. For example, the notification for chats in non-recorded meetings (above) differs somewhat from the one for chats in recorded meetings (see immediately below). For recorded meetings, the notification will remind the user that recording is enabled and, for messages sent to Everyone, the account owner as well as everyone in the meeting can see and share those messages with apps and others.
Users will find similar information when they use other meeting features — such as transcription, polls, and Q&A.
Soon users on the latest version of the Zoom client will also see privacy notifications when a meeting host or another meeting participant uses an app that can access real-time content during a meeting. Our users will be able to install these apps to make the Zoom experience more productive, efficient, and seamless, and share content with the apps as needed for them to function properly. For example, a user may share meeting content with a transcription app so that the meeting can be transcribed.
We believe the app ecosystem is a great thing for our users and that it will enable the next generation of collaboration. We also believe our users should be empowered to make informed decisions in context about whether and how they participate in that collaboration, knowing that other users or account owners may choose to share user content and information with third-party apps.
In many of these new notifications, users will see the term “account owner” in the notifications. As a reminder, the account owner is the individual or organization who sets up an account (like a company that obtains a license to use Zoom in its workplace). You can find more information about these new in-product privacy notifications in this support article.
We are excited to bring you this new product education to give you more information about who can see, save, and share your content and information.