Video Service Companies Must Protect Data, Privacy Watchdogs Say

An international group of privacy regulators is calling on videoconferencing companies to focus on several areas to protect users’ data.

In an open letter Tuesday, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and five other regulators called on the companies to mitigate any identified privacy risks to better protect users’ personal information. The regulators also said the companies should ensure that their videoconferencing technologies are compliant with data protection and privacy laws globally.

“Ease of staying in touch must not come at the expense of people’s data protection and privacy rights,” said the regulators, including privacy authorities from Hong Kong, Switzerland, Australia, the U.K., and Gibraltar, as well as Canada.

The regulators sent their letter directly to Microsoft Corp., Cisco Systems, Inc., Zoom Video Communications Inc., House Party of Life on Air Inc., and Alphabet Inc.'s Google.

The increase in video conferencing during the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing risks to users’ personal information and privacy and also created new ones, the regulators wrote.

The letter outlined key principles associated with privacy and data security issues for companies to safeguard, given the increased use of videoconferencing services. The topics included security, privacy-by-default, transparency, audience, and end-user control.

Microsoft, Cisco, Zoom, House Party, and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.