If you have used Zoom in the past five years or have just signed up for the video conferencing service, you may be in for some money.

On Saturday, July 31, Zoom was sued in federal court for misleading users about its encryption and security, sharing user data with Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn without user consent or even user notification, with inadequate security leading to "Zoom bombing" Reached an $85 million agreement with two California law firms that had sued the company in federal court for.

Consumers who paid for a Zoom subscription between March 30, 2016 and July 30, 2021 are entitled to a refund of 15% of the subscription fee or $25, whichever is higher. Plaintiffs estimate that the average refund will be around $35, but ultimately it will depend on how many people file claims.

Consumers who had free Zoom accounts are also entitled to claim $15 from the settlement fund. The judge has not yet approved the settlement, but a hearing is set for October 21. The lawsuit does not affect or concern Zoom's business or government customers who are not part of the plaintiff class.

Update: After this article was published, Zoom contacted us and provided the following statement in full. [User privacy and security is a top priority for Zoom and we take the trust of our users seriously. We are proud of the progress our platform has made and look forward to continuing to innovate to keep privacy and security top of mind.

Under the terms of the Agreement, Zoom will provide the Settlement Administrator with a list of eligible registered users, and the Administrator will notify these users of their claim eligibility via email or regular mail.

According to the Settlement Motion, notified users "need only provide their name, address, email, and claim number."

If you did not receive notice but believe you are eligible to file a claim, you must provide "an email associated with your Zoom account, your Zoom account number, or, if none, documentation and proof that [you] are a Class Member."

Class Members include Zoom personal account holders who have "registered, used, opened, or downloaded the Zoom Meetings application" between March 30, 2016 and this Saturday.

A settlement website will be launched in http://www.zoommeetingsclassaction.com/. (not yet publicly available, but the domain is registered).

The class action lawsuit consolidates 14 different lawsuits filed against Zoom in March and April 2020, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic blockades began in Europe and North America and the use of Zoom by individual customers surged. by the judge in May 2020.

While it seems opportunistic, and indeed it is, to have a series of lawsuits filed against a suddenly high-profile company, the plaintiffs' claims have merit.

Zoom did, in fact, mislead customers about the nature and security of what it claimed was "end-to-end encryption" when in fact it was not, leading Zoom to settle with the Federal Trade Commission in November 2020.

Zoom actually embedded Facebook code in its iOS app, sending information to Facebook about each user's iPhone model, location, carrier, and app usage, regardless of whether the user had a Facebook account Zoom users were made aware of this. Zoom users were not informed of this.

Zoom actually provided users who paid for special LinkedIn services with snapshots of other Zoom users' LinkedIn pages, but did not tell those users that their LinkedIn pages were shared on Zoom. The New York Times discovered that even if you sign in to a Zoom meeting under a fake name, your real LinkedIn page will pop up.

Zoom also sends mobile app usage data to Google's Firebase analytics service, which is less egregious but nevertheless the basis for another lawsuit against Google.

Plaintiffs initially sought to hold Zoom liable for the actions of Zoom "bombers" who invade Zoom meetings with content that is often shocking or disrespectful.

The court dismissed these claims, finding that Zoom was not liable for the actions of third-party users under Federal Rule 230. However, the court maintained the plaintiffs' claim that Zoom did not provide "secure videoconferencing services."

Going forward, Zoom must inform users during a conference which conference participants can see who is on the call, which participants can save conference data, and which participants are using third-party apps that can interact with the Zoom software. (Some of these features are already in place.)

Zoom also agrees to the following:

Plaintiffs' attorneys are asking the judge to set aside 25% of the settlement, or $2.125 million, to pay for attorneys' fees. While this sounds like a lot, it is less than the 33% that plaintiffs' attorneys typically receive.

If $85 million remains after all claims are settled, the surplus will be donated to two nonprofit digital rights organizations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.