Not so long ago that the popular video conferencing service Zoom will make calls more secure and private with end-to-end data encryption. Now it has been announced that only users using the service on a paid basis will be able to use the innovation, while this feature will remain unavailable for free accounts.
During the announcement of financial results, Zoom founder and CEO Eric Yuan confirmed that the company intends to use end-to-end encryption, but it will not be available to everyone. βFor free users, of course, we donβt want to enable end-to-end encryption, as we want to continue to cooperate with the FBI and local law enforcement in cases where some people use Zoom for bad purposes,β said Eric Yuan.
Zoom security specialist Alex Stamos later explained that the company is having difficulty finding a balance between providing privacy and reducing platform abuse. What he probably means is that people doing any kind of illegal activity on the Zoom platform will not sign up for a paid account, preferring to use the free version by signing up with a disposable email address. Therefore, end-to-end encryption will not be available to users of free Zoom accounts, as the lower level of privacy makes it easier to find intruders. Stamos also noted that Zoom does not actively monitor user video conferences and will not do so in the future.
The company has been facing a number of challenges lately, largely driven by the service's skyrocketing popularity driven by the coronavirus pandemic. Against this backdrop, the platform is increasingly being used by people to conduct various kinds of illegal activities, so Zoom is striving to find a balance between protecting sensitive user data and screening out people who violate the platformβs rules.
Source: 3dnews.ru