GRA COMPLETES JOINT EXERCISE ON VIDEO TELECONFERENCE PROVIDERS

In July 2020, six data protection and privacy authorities from Australia, Canada, Gibraltar, Hong Kong SAR, China, Switzerland and the United Kingdom jointly signed an open letter to video teleconferencing (VTC) companies. The letter highlighted concerns about whether privacy safeguards were keeping pace with the rapid increase in use of VTC services during the global pandemic, and provided VTC companies with some guiding principles to address key privacy risks.

The joint signatories invited five of the biggest VTC companies to reply to the letter. Microsoft, Google, Cisco and Zoom responded. Following a review of the responses, the joint signatories further engaged with these companies in a series of video calls, to better understand the steps they take to implement, monitor, and validate the privacy and security measures put in place.