Zoom has agreed to pay $85 million in a settlement with a class action lawsuit for misleading users about its videoconferencing service offering encryption at all ends.ArsTechnica claims that the company was accused in lying about its encryption description and security whitepaper, and also providing user data without permission to Facebook and Google.The U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California filed the proposed settlement. It will provide Zoom users with $15 to $25 each depending on whether they had a paid or free subscription between March 30, 2016 - July 30, 2021. If the settlement is approved, the payments will be made to Zoom users across the country.According to the settlement, Zoom also agreed to make over a dozen significant changes to its business practices. These changes were "designed to improve security, bolster privacy disclosures and safeguard consumers' data." The hearing on the motion of the plaintiffs for preliminary approval is set for October 21, 2021.After an investigation by The Intercept, Zoom was accused of making misleading encryption claims in April 2020. Zoom used TLS encryption to secure video calls, which is the same technology web servers use for HTTPS website security.TLS encryption differs from end-to-end encryption. This term refers to a method of protecting user content, so that no company can access it.Zoom meetings must be encrypted so that only participants can decrypt them using local encryption keys. However, this level of security was not offered by the service at the time.
