Zoom enhances privacy functionality for education across Europe through partnership with SURF

Zoom has reached another milestone for corporate and educational customers in the Netherlands and across the EEA. We are quite proud of that. Years of close cooperation with SURF have led Zoom to tighten and update its privacy policy and implement important privacy and security measures.

On behalf of SURF, Privacy Company has verified in an update DPIA the obligations Zoom agreed to in the published 2022 DPIA. Zoom is committed to fulfilling the agreements made with SURF to deliver an even more secure digital environment to educational and business customers in Europe.

Lynn Haaland, Chief Privacy Officer at Zoom explains, "Working with SURF has really helped refine and validate our policies and functions around data localisation capabilities in Europe - and that is now open to all our corporate and educational customers." SURF is internationally known for its robust approach in working with tech companies, which is why we are so pleased to have won SURF's trust. We believe this shows Zoom's continued commitment to Zoom customers across the EEA."

Zoom's ongoing commitment to privacy

Zoom is demonstrating a proactive approach to adhering to the privacy principles and standards embedded in the GDPR.

"We are proud of the changes our partnership with Zoom has delivered," said Jet de Ranitz, CEO and chair of SURF's board members. "With this result, which puts privacy first, Zoom is taking a big step that benefits the entire EEA."

Zoom's commitment to European standards and practices has not gone unnoticed. In 2023, Zoom received several certifications and attestations from regulators and independent organisations. These are all documented in the Trust Centre. Here you will find, among others, BSI C5 and gpaNRW in Germany and the ENS in Spain. In addition, Zoom, together with other suppliers, helped draft the new German DIN SPEC 27008, which sets out the minimum security requirements of video communication solutions.

Webinar 7 May

During the webinar on 7 May from 10.00-11.00, experts from Zoom and SURF will take you through the updated DPIA, which changes have taken place, which ones are still taking place and on which points the manual has been updated.

Transparency and reliability

"Transparency is important, especially in the modern technology landscape," says Zoom's Lynn Haaland. "These initiatives are designed to provide users with insights and options so they can decide where their data goes and how it is used. As a result, users get the transparency needed to build a trusted relationship with Zoom as a technology provider."

While Zoom has now achieved a milestone for its customers in the EEA, they are determined to build customer trust further and are constantly working to improve the platform. Important work has been done on transferring personal data to third countries, improving transparency for diagnostic data and simplifying requests from data subjects. As part of its agreements with SURF, Zoom will release a Diagnostic Data Viewer for telemetry data for enterprise and education customers in the first half of 2024. In the second half of 2024, they will develop a solution for direct data access and privacy tools.

More information

Check out the measures implemented and the full DPIA on our expertise page. If you want to find more information on privacy at Zoom, visit their Trust Center.