WebinarTV may be secretly scanning the internet for private Zoom meeting links to record calls and feature them in artificial intelligence (AI) generated podcasts.
The company then reaches out to people whose calls it recorded to promote its services, 404 Media reports.
This is what happened to teacher and educator Tom Rademacher, who made a webinar about keeping children safe from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Donald Trump’s presidency.
He told 404 Media that he intentionally did not record the webinar because of potential political and professional implications for the attendees.
In 2025, however, Rademacher received an email from a WebinarTV employee, with a seemingly AI-generated image and no online presence, informing him that he was featured on the “Phil & Amy show.” The email contained a direct link to the webinar.
The 404 Media investigation discovered that many people on Reddit and LinkedIn reported that their calls were uploaded without their permission.
Journalists found their own public online event with the Freedom of Press Foundation on WebinarTV. None of the parties involved gave the platform permission to record or publish it.
A Zoom spokesperson told 404 Media that WebinarTV services are not affiliated with the company, and the activity described is not a result of a vulnerability or security issue on Zoom’s platform.
Webinar didn’t respond to a request to comment.
What is WebinarTV?
WebinarTV positions itself as a “search engine for the best webinars,” allowing users to discover “the most current wisdom from the world’s most knowledgeable people.”
According to the company’s website, it indexes only free, public webinars. Private webinars and meetings are not included.
WebinarTV says it is free for viewers, and there is no cost to include a webinar on the platform, but “additional marketing opportunities are available for hosts.”
Users who agree to the Terms of Service grant WebinarTV a license to “reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works, display, and perform” the content uploaded to the platform.
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