
U.S. FTC indicates it is looking at Zoom privacy woes - pseudolus
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-zoom-ftc/u-s-ftc-indicates-it-is-looking-at-zoom-privacy-woes-idUSKBN22N2MJ
======
tuukkah
If you still have to use Zoom, at least uninstall the desktop Zoom and take
advantage of some private browsing instead:

"With this change, you can now join Zoom calls on Firefox without the need for
any additional downloads." [https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/76.0/releasenotes/](https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/76.0/releasenotes/)

"Zoom Redirector transparently redirects any meeting links to use Zoom's
browser based web client." [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/zoom-redirect...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/zoom-redirector/)

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humaniania
This write up from the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab is the best that I
have seen regarding Zoom's issues [https://citizenlab.ca/2020/04/move-fast-
roll-your-own-crypto...](https://citizenlab.ca/2020/04/move-fast-roll-your-
own-crypto-a-quick-look-at-the-confidentiality-of-zoom-meetings/)

~~~
e40
It would be nice to see an update, because Zoom has rolled out a lot of
changes that were a direct response to many criticisms.

~~~
0xy
It's still under the CCP's purview and they still aren't using E2EE. Therefore
you should only use this product if you're fine with shipping your company's
IP to China for them to copy, given their systematic efforts to infringe on
the IP of Western companies via top-down efforts.

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upofadown
It turns out that Zoom actually does encrypt "end point to end point" as they
have stated. The initial Signal article was in error and the Reuters article
is being misleading by omission by failing to mention that.

I think an encryption privacy consumer protection law would force a company to
say how much work they would have to do to get access to the E2EEed data. As
it is now, the expression "end to end encryption" is practically meaningless.
The Zoom case is an excellent example.

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blackrock
All of the noise about Zoom sounds like a witch-hunt.

But hopefully, Zoom can improve their security and privacy features, to make
their product even better.

I think people forget just how terrible video conferencing was, before Zoom
came around, and got installed in corporate meeting rooms worldwide.

Let me remind you again: It was terrible!

Zoom actually brought a breath of fresh air to the landscape. The video was
relatively snappy, and the audio was usually always spot on.

It made you feel almost as if you were living in Star Trek land, with
ubiquitous video calls everywhere.

And all the hubbub about Facebook, Google, and Microsoft offering free
videoconferencing on their chat tools, just means that this wasn’t their core
competency. They had other things to work on. Bigger fish to fry. Whereas
Zoom, just focused on one thing, and one thing only, videoconferencing.

~~~
0xy
Is a shiny polished product worth risking your companies valuable IP, given
Zoom has lied about using end-to-end encryption and has routed American
communications through China in the past?

This is straight out of the CCP's playbook, and Zoom is far from being outside
of the CCP's influence.

~~~
blackrock
The CEO is an American citizen.

He is probably more loyal and patriotic to the country than you are. And I’m
sure he creates and provides more jobs to Americans than you do.

If you have evidence that he is doing something illegal, then present it.
Otherwise, you are just fear mongering.

And realize that coordinating with a foreign government is a criminal offense.
I highly doubt he is interested in such activity.

Just so that he can snoop on your scrum meeting or fake agile process? That’s
just nonsense.

Zuck and Brin and Bezos and Gates, has more details about your personal life
than you can imagine. And none of that data is encrypted. It’s all just
sitting there on their servers just waiting to be harvested. When was the last
time you complained about these companies?

But hey, it’s a free country. If you don’t want to use it, then don’t use it.
No one is forcing you. You can even demand a boycott if your own company uses
the product.

And to be honest, I don’t even use it outside of business. Treat it as a
public medium, where all communications may be monitored. I’m more concerned
about my employer monitoring me, than I am about some foreign boogeyman on the
other side of the planet, listening to my boring scrum meetings.

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avalys
Why do we need the FTC involved in this?

~~~
karatestomp
It's (one of) their job(s) to investigate consumer complaints. Doesn't mean
anything will come of it.

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frequentnapper
about time. I actively avoid Zoom and whenever any of my non-tech friends
suggest "zooming" I just send them a google meet link.

~~~
jimbob45
100% safe alternative: Install Zoom on your Windows Sandbox

[https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-kernel-
intern...](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-kernel-
internals/windows-sandbox/ba-p/301849)

~~~
dependenttypes
That does not solve the issues that Zoom has/had with encryption nor with
leaking info. In addition there have been all kinds of sandbox escapes in the
past. Finally I would not trust some random non-free program by Microsoft none
the less to be secure, especially not against state attackers.

