# After backlash, Zoom reversed its terms of service so it will not use customer content to train AI (August 2023)

> In March 2023 Zoom changed its online terms of service (effective 27 July 2023); section 10.4 let Zoom use 'Service Generated Data' 'for any purpose ... including for the purpose of ... machine learning or artificial intelligence (including for the purposes of training and tuning of algorithms and models),' with no opt-out. After the clause surfaced on 6–7 August 2023, a public backlash spread. Zoom updated section 10.4 / section 10 and, in a blog post by CPO Smita Hashim (edited 11 August 2023), said it 'does not use any of your audio, video, chat, screen sharing, attachments, or other communications like customer content ... to train Zoom's or third-party artificial intelligence models.' This is a Terms-of-Service AI walk-back, carried by Zoom's own blog plus two independent newsrooms.

- Verification status: verified
- Case type: deployment
- Provider: Zoom Video Communications
- Client: Zoom Video Communications, Video conferencing / communications SaaS; AI terms of service (named)
- Sector: saas / US / cross
- Verified on: 2026-08-24
- Canonical URL: https://theinternetninja.com/stories/zoom-terms-of-service-ai-training-customer-content-reversed-after-backlash-2023/
- Source: The Internet Ninja (theinternetninja.com), independent verified-proof platform

## Verification method

AI Terms-of-Service walk-back record. The reversal is documented first-party in Zoom's own blog post (CPO Smita Hashim, published 7 Aug 2023, edited 11 Aug 2023) and independently by TechCrunch (2023-08-08) and Engadget (2023-08-11); the original disputed section-10.4 clause is quoted verbatim by CNBC (2023-08-07) and NBC News (2023-08-07), and its existence is confirmed first-party by Zoom's blog. All five captures are byte-tied (local sha1-b32 == Wayback CDX digest) and every quoted fragment was grep -F byte-verified against the specific capture it is attributed to. A green badge would require a human confirming the record with Zoom and archiving Zoom's own pre-walk-back terms page.

## FAQ

**Does Zoom use customer content to train AI?**

After the August 2023 backlash, Zoom updated its terms of service and said it does not use audio, video, chat, screen sharing or attachments to train its or third-party AI models without customer consent.

**What did section 10.4 of Zoom's terms of service say?**

As quoted by CNBC and NBC News, the terms changed in March 2023 let Zoom use Service Generated Data for machine learning and artificial intelligence, including training and tuning of models, with no opt-out.

**Did Zoom remove AI training entirely?**

No. The walk-back removed the automatic, no-opt-out grant over communications, but users who switch on Zoom's generative-AI features consent to Zoom training on their content.

## Full case file

## The problem

In **March 2023** Zoom updated its online terms of service, with the change taking
effect **27 July 2023**. **Section 10.4** granted Zoom broad rights over "**Service
Generated Data for any purpose**," and, as [source](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/07/zoom-ai-tools-trained-using-some-customer-data.html)
quoted the terms directly, the permitted purposes included "**machine learning or
artificial intelligence (including for the purposes of training and tuning of
algorithms and models)**" ([source](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/07/zoom-ai-tools-trained-using-some-customer-data.html)).
There was no opt-out. A second, independent newsroom quoted a different part of the
same clause: [source](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/zoom-ai-privacy-tos-terms-of-service-data-rcna98665)
reported that "**In Section 10.4 of Zoom**"'s terms, "updated in March," users
granted Zoom a licence for purposes including "**machine learning, artificial
intelligence, training, testing**" ([source](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/zoom-ai-privacy-tos-terms-of-service-data-rcna98665)).
On 6–7 August 2023 the clause was surfaced publicly and a backlash spread among
users, educators and privacy advocates who read it as permission to feed calls,
chats and other communications into AI training. Zoom's own blog later confirmed the
origin firsthand: "**We changed our online terms of service in March 2023**"
([source](https://blog.zoom.us/zooms-term-service-ai/)).

## What happened

After the backlash, Zoom reversed course and updated its terms. In its first-party
[source](https://blog.zoom.us/zooms-term-service-ai/) (attributed to Chief Product
Officer Smita Hashim, "**edited on August 11, 2023**"), the company said it "**does
not use any of your audio, video, chat, screen sharing, attachments**, or other
communications like customer content ... to train Zoom's or third-party artificial
intelligence models," and that it had moved to "**reorganize Section 10**" of the
terms ([source](https://blog.zoom.us/zooms-term-service-ai/)).
[source](https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/08/zoom-data-mining-for-ai-terms-gdpr-eprivacy/)
reported the company had updated the terms so that "**we will not use audio, video,
or chat Customer Content to train our artificial intelligence models without customer
consent**" ([source](https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/08/zoom-data-mining-for-ai-terms-gdpr-eprivacy/)).
[source](https://www.engadget.com/zoom-now-says-it-wont-use-any-customer-content-for-ai-training-170533411.html)
independently reported the broadened statement, that Zoom "**does not use any of
your audio, video, chat, screen-sharing, attachments**, or other communications like
customer content" to train AI, noting the change to "**the previously troublesome
section 10 in**" Zoom's terms of service ([source](https://www.engadget.com/zoom-now-says-it-wont-use-any-customer-content-for-ai-training-170533411.html)).

## The distinctive fact

The reversal carried a consent caveat rather than a blanket prohibition. As
[source](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/07/zoom-ai-tools-trained-using-some-customer-data.html)
reported the clarification, Zoom said that "**for AI, we do not use audio, video or
chat content for training our models without customer consent**", and users who
switch on Zoom's generative-AI features (Meeting Summary, Team Chat Compose) consent
to Zoom training on their content ([source](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/07/zoom-ai-tools-trained-using-some-customer-data.html)).
The walk-back removed the automatic, no-opt-out AI-training grant over communications;
it did not remove AI training entirely.

## The weakest link (source honesty)

The single soft spot is that the **original, pre-walk-back section 10.4 text is
quoted here through independent press (CNBC and NBC News), not from an archived
first-party copy of Zoom's old terms page.** CNBC and NBC News are strong independent
secondaries (Tier 2), and they quote the clause verbatim and agree on its substance,
but the canonical original terms document itself is not in hand. Zoom's own blog
confirms first-party only that the *terms changed* in March 2023, not the exact
wording of the disputed clause. Retrieving and archiving Zoom's own pre-walk-back
section 10.4 (or a recorded Zoom confirmation of the before/after text) is the
outstanding step this page leaves open.

## How this was verified

- **Method:** AI Terms-of-Service walk-back record. Both critical claims, the
  original AI/ML-training grant (c1) and the post-backlash reversal (c2), rest on two
  independent newsrooms each, plus Zoom's own first-party blog as the origin. Every
  load-bearing fragment was re-checked verbatim against the specific capture it is
  attributed to (12/12 bind, 0 misses), this session.
- **Byte-tie:** all five on-disk captures are Wayback `id_` raw payloads whose local
  sha1-b32 equals the live Wayback CDX digest (status 200): Zoom blog
  `20230812065407`, CNBC `20230807175926`, NBC News `20230808022407`, TechCrunch
  `20230809013803`, Engadget `20230811184916`.
- **Date checked:** 2026-08-09 (graduation); presentation re-verified 2026-08-18.
- **Ceiling:** amber. Green is a human-only step; it would require a recorded
  confirmation from Zoom of the exact date section 10.4 was revised and the canonical
  before/after clause text, plus an archived first-party copy of the pre-walk-back
  terms page. This badge is **not** `verified`.

## Sources

1. **Zoom blog** · "How Zoom's terms of service and practices apply to AI" (Smita Hashim, Chief Product Officer) · edited 2023-08-11 · **Tier 1 (first-party origin)** · https://blog.zoom.us/zooms-term-service-ai/
2. **CNBC** · "Zoom AI tools trained using some customer data, updated terms say" · 2023-08-07 · **Tier 2 (independent secondary)** · https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/07/zoom-ai-tools-trained-using-some-customer-data.html
3. **NBC News** · "Zoom responds to privacy concerns raised by AI data collection" · 2023-08-07 · **Tier 2 (independent secondary)** · https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/zoom-ai-privacy-tos-terms-of-service-data-rcna98665
4. **TechCrunch** · "Zoom knots itself a legal tangle over use of customer data for training AI models" (Natasha Lomas) · 2023-08-08 · **Tier 2 (independent secondary)** · https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/08/zoom-data-mining-for-ai-terms-gdpr-eprivacy/
5. **Engadget** · "Zoom now says it won't use any customer content for AI training" (Will Shanklin) · 2023-08-11 · **Tier 2 (independent secondary)** · https://www.engadget.com/zoom-now-says-it-wont-use-any-customer-content-for-ai-training-170533411.html

## Related case files

- [Adobe adds a "we don't train AI on your content" clarification after backlash (2024)](/stories/adobe-terms-of-use-ai-training-clarification-added-after-backlash-2024/): the same ToS/AI-training walk-back pattern, one year later.
- [Dropbox adds a third-party-AI toggle and confirms customer data is not used to train models (2023)](/stories/dropbox-third-party-ai-openai-toggle-backlash-data-not-used-to-train-models-2023/): a platform granting the opt-out Zoom's users demanded.
- [WeTransfer removes an AI-training clause from its terms after backlash (2025)](/stories/wetransfer-ai-training-clause-terms-removed-after-backlash-2025/): a near-identical terms reversal in the file-transfer category.
- [Slack updates its AI privacy principles after user backlash over ML training opt-out (2024)](/stories/slack-ai-privacy-principles-updated-after-user-backlash-ml-training-opt-out-2024/): another communications tool clarifying customer-content training.