Why is zoom prompting for permission to bypass system window picker on macos Sequoia 15.2 ?

[remoteitrobo]

I updated to Sequoia 15.2 this morning and after a meeting I noticed a pop dialog in the background where zoon.us was requesting permission to bypass the system private window picker and directly access my screen and audio.  I believe this is a new permission/restriction in Macos but I wanted to see if anybody has run into this and what they selected?

[GM100]

I have the same question. I was at the meeting and by mistake clicked "yes" to give the permission, but I don't like it. We already have close to zero privacy, what else Zoom wants? The only reason I am using Zoom is because it got promoted during Covid among big corporations and now most people have Zoom. Otherwise, Skype is better. 

[maethlin]

Same question... and possibly more an Apple issue than Zoom per-se, but Zoom should address it as well.

I have a feeling since it came with an upgrade to Sequoia, that nothing has actually change on a practical/permissions level, and that Sequoia just has new/different wording to allow the same level of access you already had before, but I cannot confirm that, and it sucks having to hunt that info down.

[District1]

I am also wondering about this, following.

[MGSR · Accepted solution]

Hello there,

Welcome to the Zoom Community! We're glad to have you here. 

The macOS enforces strict privacy controls to prevent unauthorized apps from accessing or recording what’s on your screen. As a result, apps like Zoom require explicit permission to use screen recording features. When sharing your screen, Zoom needs access to specific parts of your system to display content, and bypassing the window picker is part of this process—enabling Zoom to automatically select the right window or area to share without requiring manual input.

I hope this clears things up.

[whatever123]

@MGSR Hello Mark, thanks for the reply. But unfortunately that doesn't clear things up for me at least. Can you please elaborate on what this means:

> enabling Zoom to automatically select the right window or area to share without requiring manual input.

I don't like the sound of that at all. I very much want to manually select what window(s) Zoom can share. I don't want it guessing about what I want to share.

Can you please specifically define / illustrate what "the system private window picker is"?

I have this prompt right now (so haven't allowed it), and I have a Zoom meeting started. If I click "Share" I see the dialog I'm used to (I would include a screenshot, but it says I don't have permission), with "Screens", "Documents", and "Advanced" tabs. In the "Screens" tab I can select "Entire screen" or specific "Application windows". If I do that and click "Share" (the one inside the dialog), then it appears to share as normal. That's what I want.

Is that dialog "the system private window picker"? Whether it is or not, considering that's the UX I want, why do I need to allow Zoom to bypass whatever it's talking about -- what's in it for me?

[whatever123]

Well right after I posted that I clicked the button in the prompt to go to the settings and it was already enabled, so I don't know why I was prompted. To confirm I disabled it in settings and then when I tried to share in Zoom, all of the windows had an alert icon instead of the thumbnail of the window. (I didn't reply here right away because my earlier post wasn't showing up.)