In a blog post describing recent security changes, Zoom video conferencing platform announced temporary removal of Giphy integration in chats. The company also stated that the feature will be back after some security and technical measures are taken.
“To ensure strong privacy protection for users, we’ve temporarily removed the GIPHY integration in Zoom Chat,” reads the announcement. No other details were provided.
Along with this security update, the company also described some other changes in the platform, including limits on screen sharing, multiple login restrictions, consent for unmute, etc.
The removal of Giphy follows the acquisition of the service by Facebook in mid-May. The social network giant reportedly bought the popular service with GIF images for $400 million to later integrate Giphy’s library into Instagram.
Kay Lee
“GIFs and stickers give people meaningful and creative ways to express themselves. We see the positivity in how people use GIPHY in our products today, and we know that bringing the GIPHY team’s creativity and talent together with ours will only accelerate how people use visual communication to connect with each other,” stated Facebook’s blog post.
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Many other platforms rely on Giphy’s API. Among them, there are Pinterest, Slack, Twitter, Reddit, and others. According to Facebook, nothing will change for users after the acquisition, and developers and partners working with Giphy’s API will still have access to it. However, it is unknown how the purchase will affect other services and platforms that partnered with Giphy, as Facebook experienced many privacy and security issues.
In turn, Zoom had some issues of the same matter as well. In early May, it became known that 500,000 Zoom logins were sold through an anonymous telegram account, and the same number of hacked Zoom accounts were sold on dark web.
Since then, Zoom has made several privacy and security updates.
