Who’s Watching You Zoom? Investigating Privacy of Third-Party Zoom Apps
Authors: Saharsh Goenka (Arizona State University), Adit Prabhu (Arizona State University), Payge Sakurai (Arizona State University), Mrinaal Ramachandran (Arizona State University), Rakibul Hasan (Arizona State University)
Volume: 2025
Issue: 4
Pages: 530–548
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56553/popets-2025-0143
Abstract: Zoom serves millions of users daily with a growing marketplace of third-party apps that can reach those users. Despite being the leading remote collaboration platform, the privacy and security aspects of marketplace apps have not been investigated. This paper examines the evolution of the Zoom Marketplace over one year, identifying trends in apps, their patterns of permission requests for users' data, and the transparency of their privacy policies. Our findings surface increasing over-collection of user data, obscurity in data collection and sharing purposes, and potential non-compliance with laws in the education and healthcare sectors. In light of these findings, we provide concrete recommendations for Zoom and directions for future research to improve the privacy posture of this emerging platform.
Keywords: Privacy, Zoom Marketplace, Third-party applications, Privacy policy analysis, Data permissions
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