Michael Drieu sues Zoom Communications for overstating and not disclosing privacy, security flaws

Zoom Communications Inc was slapped with a class-action suit by one of its shareholders on Tuesday. The suit accuses the video-conferencing app of overstating its privacy standards and failing to disclose that its service was not end-to-end encrypted.

In a complaint filed on Tuesday in San Francisco federal court, Michael Drieu accused the company and its top officers. The suit read charges of concealing the truth about shortcomings in the app's software encryption. This included its alleged vulnerability to hackers, as well as the unauthorised disclosure of personal information to third parties, including Facebook Inc. The case number is 5:20-cv-02353 It was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Zoom Chief Executive Officer Eric Yuan has apologised for the lapses. He acknowledged in a blog post last week that the company had fallen short of expectations over privacy and security. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), also, said in a memo seen by Reuters news agency that Zoom has been responsive to concerns over its software.

The company's shares started falling after the suit. Its shares closed down about 7.5% at $113.75 on Tuesday. They have lost nearly a third of their market value since touching record highs in late-March.

Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX recently banned its employees from using Zoom, citing “significant privacy and security concerns”. Taiwan's cabinet has told government agencies to stop using the app. The island's education ministry later said it was banning the use of Zoom in schools.

Most recently, the University of Toronto-based internet watchdog Citizen Lab said it found "significant weaknesses" in the encryption protecting the confidentiality of Zoom meetings. They even provided evidence that encryption keys - key bits of code whose possession could enable a hostile power to eavesdrop on conversations - sent messages to servers in China, even when the meeting's participants were in North America.

Zoom has been trying to plug security issues, as it signs up millions of new users from across the world due to the work from home norms. The company is currently facing backlash from several users all over the world. The trend #Zoombomnbing is getting quite famous on Social Media.