Zoom refuses to encrypt calls to comply with FBI
"Free users for sure we don't want to give that because we also want to work together with FBI, with local law enforcement in case some people use Zoom for a bad purpose,"
- Zoom CEO Eric Yuan
The same old story used in crypto, "in case some people use it for a bad purpose". Do that not know how frequently US Dollars are used for "bad purposes"?
Every day.
As most of you know, Zoom has become hugely popular since the start of Social Distancing. It allows people to still have some form of companionship without putting themselves at risk.
I wrote about Zoom's privacy issues in the past, and they are significant. Jitsi is a good alternative to Zoom and is being integrated into the Brave browser.
If you are not familiar with the privacy issues with Zoom, I recommend checking out this Decrypt article.
Elon Musk recently banned employees from using Zoom and many other businesses are boycotting Zoom from their businesses.
Zoom plans to offer end to end encryption (Which they claimed they already did but was found out to be fraudulent) if you verify your identity with Zoom prior to service. This is a feature that will be offered to paid users only.
I highly recommend you avoid using Zoom and find other safer alternatives. It is difficult, as many have already made Zoom a part of their daily routine.
“We understand that many of us were using this tool for conferences and meeting support,”
“Please use email, text or phone as alternate means of communication.”
- SpaceX Email to all Employees
Lol
They will kill their business, what important company will accept to have its calls spied on.
At least they are not pretending.
For non-business, casual fluff talk calls mostly to say hello, is there high risk? Is there concern that someone other than FBI might be spying by intercepting wifi? Or is the concern that personal/confidential information revealed in audio/visuals could be spied on and recorded?
Isn't this the same damage from all those big companies that accidentally leaked, were hacked, or sold our privacy info without consent? Just sayin'!
Thank you for letting us know about better alternatives that exist.
The fact they were caught selling data to Facebook in itself is enough of a reason I hate them.
They also lied about having end to end encryption.
They are incompetent and untrustworthy. A deadly combination.
It really feels weird nowadays, data is like napkins and we treat people like robots, just sign up get credits and then we expect you to automatically - like, share, subscribe, give us money ... watch ads all day ... For me it seems like plain text is the only way to go, and that's a bit of a shame, but trading all your attention and imagination for some sparkles doesn't sound any better. :D
Last I checked Zoom had acquired Keybase to work on that encryption. It's old news, but it's still important to check, in my opinion.
Anyways we better do something good with the blockchain and tech we have, because all I'm seeing is a lot of hype and nothing much changing in reality. It's still a long way to get to the mainstream and it would be great if we can make something different on these platforms, even if I'm a bit disappointed so far.
Anyways privacy on the internet was always hard to achieve, I prefer the obscure pseudo-real digital identities over having everything in life wired and automated. And the best bet we currently have is OS projects, and hope for humanity :D ... even if that is too naive'
Fuck ZOOM. Horrible company.
Muchas gracias por su recomendación. En Venezuela lo están usando mucho.
My company won't let us use zoom either. We mostly used the corporate version of skype because it works well with outlook and Microsoft has a sense of responsibility (we aren't worried about hiding stuff from the authorities).
At the rate these guys are going, pretty soon ChatRoulette will be the only sensible option because at least you know there is no security. I'll have to check out Jitsi, but I doubt anything that's free, it lowers the barrier to corrupt them.
Even then people won't still use Jitsi lol
They're just saying that to justify themselves to be a CCP China puppet
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/11/zoom-admits-to-shutting-down-activist-accounts-at-the-request-of-the-chinese-government/
The problem I have here in Israel: everyone is on WhatsApp and it's almost impossible to exist without having it on a phone.
Now the same with Zoom as its the only solution the entire education system has settled on for distance learning. I can't avoid having the damn thing on various devices around my home and network.
I'm suing Facebook and would rather not have any of their products on my phone but short of getting a second phone, there's not much I can do.
How's that lawsuit going?
We're about to get into a very detailed legal review with a very senior and prestigious QC (Barriser). The law firm we've hired will present the case almost like wargaming it. That will give us the most detailed review we've had and help us improve the case. In start up terms getting a good result out of that would be like having a working app with a few thousands users and good growth :-)
From that we should be able to land the big bucks we need backing us up to allow us to file.
Now if someone showed up with big bucks ($1m+) and an ideological desire to land a blow, we'd love to talk to them.
That's why use the Brave browser and use the end to end encrypted video call feature on it!