Honestly, we don’t know what the world would have done if we didn’t have the internet during this pandemic. Virtual workplaces and remote conference calls made it possible to continue important parts of the economy worldwide. This drove many to the Zoom platform, which has come under fire for its problematic security protocols.
In the free version of the app, there are clear limitations — which makes sense. Especially because we’re not… ahem… paying for it. So calls are shorter and features are limited. Recently news came out that Zoom won’t encrypt calls on the free version of its app. While it’s kind of expected, it’s not ideal for most users. As user (and business) security is more important than ease of use.
Yesterday, Zoom announced that it will allow users to enable end-to-end encryption of calls starting with the beta next month. “Today, Zoom released an updated E2EE design on GitHub. We are also pleased to share that we have identified a path forward that balances the legitimate right of all users to privacy and the safety of users on our platform. This will enable us to offer E2EE as an advanced add-on feature for all of our users around the globe – free and paid – while maintaining the ability to prevent and fight abuse on our platform,” Zoom announced in a blog post.
It’s a welcome update, of course. And many users will finally have the safety expected from a video conferencing platform. It looks like people may still prefer Zoom to alternative video conferencing apps.
Source: Zoom Blog