Changed general conditions for free services Zoom have no effect on Dutch (and European) education
Zoom updated its worldwide consumer terms and conditions (for free services) in March of this year. Those amended terms state that Zoom has the right -in the future- to analyze customer data with AI. These changes have no negative impact on Zoom's European paying customers and, in particular, Dutch educational institutions using the processor agreement negotiated by SURF.
Other general terms and conditions for education
Paying customers and educational institutions sign other general terms and conditions. SURF has worked intensively with Zoom over the past two years to negotiate very competitive privacy terms for the Dutch education sector. As part of this process, Zoom has tightened its European privacy policy for all business and education customers. This tightened policy describes that Zoom acts as a processor, and thus may only process personal data for the purposes stated in the agreement.
The processor agreement takes precedence over all other legal documents
In a nutshell, this agreement prohibits Zoom from processing customers' personal data for commercial purposes such as profiling, marketing or big data analytics. Regardless of whether it is the content of calls, or data on the use of the software and participation in video conferences. The processor agreement takes precedence over any text in other legal documents and also protects the data of participants with a free account during Zoom sessions with participants with paid (educational) licenses. If a paid license participates, users with a free account are also covered by the terms of the concluded education processor agreement. Thus, the change of the global terms has no negative consequences for Dutch (and European) education.
Zoom has stated in response to the outcry that it has never processed data from free or paying customers with AI and that it regrets the confusion that has arisen in this regard. In this statement, Zoom specifically explains the situation for SURF.
SURF remains in constant dialogue with Zoom
Zoom and SURF have regular discussions about the processing of personal data and about possible ways to deploy AI in a privacy-friendly manner. The main point is always that the educational institutions must be able to decide for themselves whether they want to make use of such services.
