Running Zoom on a Mac? It may be listening to you right now

Over the past couple of years, Zoom has found a permanent home in many Mac users’ Docks, but a new bug might have you thinking twice about keeping it open. 

According to numerous posts on the Zoom Community Forum, Mac users running Monterey are reporting that the Zoom app is triggering the microphone light indicator even when a meeting isn’t taking place. Users reported as recently as February 9 that the Zoom app is opening the microphone as evidenced by the orange dot indicator, with the only way to stop it to quit the app after you get off the call.

User dvaldivia describes the issue on his Mac on February 9: If you join a zoom meeting and finish it, then leave zoom open and walk away from the computer (let it go into screen saver) when you come back you can see the microphone got turned on and stays that way consistently.

Zoom pushed out an update on December 27 (version 5.9.1 (3506)) that reportedly resolved the issue “regarding the microphone light indicator being triggered when not in a meeting on macOS Monterey,” but users are reporting the problem persists. A January 24 update (version 5.9.3 (4239)) doesn’t mention the issue though some users reported it fixed the issue. However, several Monterey users are still experiencing the issue even after installing the latest update.

Zoom came under fire early in the pandemic over a lack of encryption, Zoombombing, and data collection. The company has since corrected those issues and has been more transparent about features and privacy, including implementing end-to-end encryption for meetings and implementing several options to restrict access to meetings.

If you’re seeing the microphone light active after updating to the latest version, we recommend simply quitting the Zoom app after your meeting has ended.