Zoom Now Says End-to-End Encryption Will Be Available for All Users

[icanhazmac]

100% of people that I communicate with use zoom. So while a few might have some idealogical issues with Zoom, my anecdotal experience is that it is the go to Video conference service.

Until they ban your account for joining a conference discussing something the Chinese government doesn't like?

I get that you like the software, many do because it is easy to use and many people don't really know about or care about security, but how many red flags 🇨🇳 (pun intended) do you need to see before you stop cheerleading for them? YMMV so please continue to use their service if you wish but don't continue to downplay their many issues as simply ideological differences.

 

[I7guy]

Isn't that how Facebook started?

Zoom is already an entrenched public company.

 

[DotCom2]

Zoom is already an entrenched public company.

That's not what I meant but ok.

 

[Ronlap]

Now if Zoom would address bug reports from paid users, that would be nice as well. I am not able to share my screen on a Mac, nor can I delete a mistaken chat message. Their HELP shows exactly how to do both, but the options that I see look nothing like what they show in their documentation. And yes I am on the latest release.

 

[calstanford]

******** company. First they claim they have E2E encryption. Then it turns out they didn’t and want to offer it to paying customers only. Now suddenly back to yea E2E for all...

 

[tedwill]

Zoom makes my system ruin, so I have to restart my mac after using it.... anyone else ?

It works great on my 2013 MBP with the latest MacOS

 

[Airforcekid]

WOW! Didn't know about this:

Zoom Promises To Do Better After Banning Tiananmen Square Protests—Then Builds Tech To Help China’s Censorship

Zoom reinstates accounts of Tiananmen Square commemoration organizers, but is creating tech to ensure mainland Chinese users can be censored.

www.forbes.com

I am not in favor of but I understand the censorship bit, if you want to do business respect the local laws, but banning a paid for account outside of China?!?! Zooms seems to be hand in hand with the Chinese government.

Gotta love the Pi-Hole! Found my stupid surround sound head unit pinging the intarwebz once a minute to see if it had a connection.... seriously?

A PiHole or similar alternative is a must on any modern network. Ive removed so much software and hardware from my life that was doing questionable things.

 

[DotCom2]

Until they ban your account for joining a conference discussing something the Chinese government doesn't like?

I get that you like the software, many do because it is easy to use and many people don't really know about or care about security, but how many red flags 🇨🇳 (pun intended) do you need to see before you stop cheerleading for them? YMMV so please continue to use their service if you wish but don't continue to downplay their many issues as simply ideological differences.

Well said!

 

[Michael Scrip]

End-to-end encryption ensures no one but the participants and their devices can see and hear what is happening in a meeting, although it will exclude people who call in to Zoom meetings from a telephone line.

Ah... so it appears that the telephone is the weak link.

So that begs the question... why is everyone so concerned with Zoom encryption when the plain ol' telephone was able to be snooped on all this time?

Isn't there more sensitive business data shared over the telephone rather than a boring Zoom call?

 

[TJ82]

Why not let your Mac boost the power if you have one?

 

[Mosey Potter]

I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being more secure than other options.

That is a seriously low bar to measure by

 

[TheStygimoloch]

Especially one under control of CCP.

Zoom has no affiliation with the CCP. China blocked Zoom from functioning in China without notice.

 

[I7guy]

Until they ban your account for joining a conference discussing something the Chinese government doesn't like?

I get that you like the software, many do because it is easy to use and many people don't really know about or care about security, but how many red flags 🇨🇳 (pun intended) do you need to see before you stop cheerleading for them? YMMV so please continue to use their service if you wish but don't continue to downplay their many issues as simply ideological differences.

Your issues, are not issues at all to some as Zoom already addressed and rectified the issues. I'm not concerned about my information falling into the wrong hands using Zoom, there are already plenty of avenues for that, but Zoom isn't one of them. If you want to hang to the issue with China, be my guest, but it doesn't mean my zoom call business information is going to end up on the dark web or they are going to ban my account. Which is the entire point.

If every issue someone had with some public corporation became a cause celebre there would be no more public corporations to which we could use their services and products.

 

[DotCom2]

If every issue someone had with some public corporation became a cause celebre there would be no more public corporations to which we could use their services and products.

And they don't take advantage of this AT ALL!

 

[icanhazmac]

Your issues, are not issues at all to some

Well there is the agree to disagree point, we obviously have very different opinions on security, trust etc.

So far I count:

1) Hidden web server installed on Macs, did not uninstall with the app. Was done to circumvent 1 extra click which was a security measure Apple put into place.
2) Encryption keys generated in China where by law the government can demand the keys, this applied to North American meetings as well, not just meetings where all participants were in China.
3) Lied about having end to end encryption
4) Some traffic was directed through China
5) US based users banned at the request of the Chinese government over meeting content... WOW, just WOW!
6) Zoom "bombing"
7) Lied about user counts, not wise for a traded company
8) Lied about the level of encryption used, claimed AES-256, used AES-128

Wonder what is next?

If none of these things mean anything to you, especially the lies, then again we have different views on security and trust in developers, they only "fixed" these issues when called out. Enjoy using Zoom, I'm glad its good enough for you.

 

[I7guy]

Well there is the agree to disagree point, we obviously have very different opinions on security, trust etc.

So far I count:

1) Hidden web server installed on Macs, did not uninstall with the app. Was done to circumvent 1 extra click which was a security measure Apple put into place.
2) Encryption keys generated in China where by law the government can demand the keys, this applied to North American meetings as well, not just meetings where all participants were in China.
3) Lied about having end to end encryption
4) Some traffic was directed through China
5) US based users banned at the request of the Chinese government over meeting content... WOW, just WOW!
6) Zoom "bombing"
7) Lied about user counts, not wise for a traded company
8) Lied about the level of encryption used, claimed AES-256, used AES-128

Wonder what is next?

If none of these things mean anything to you, especially the lies, then again we have different views on security and trust in developers, they only "fixed" these issues when called out. Enjoy using Zoom, I'm glad its good enough for you.

And yet, there wasn't a mushroom cloud that pointed to information being intercepted by users of zoom sessions to any degree of worry. (maybe to any degree)

As far as your bullet points:
1. rectified
2. rectified from what I can tell from a US perspective
3. That was stupid
4. rectified
5. rectified
6. not an issue for zoom, issue for users not knowing how setup a call. (Similar to many other user based tech issues)
7. some form of malfeasance applies to every traded company - hopefully it's not an Enron size issue
8. so what

From a trust level, Zoom has learned their lesson in my opinion. From a security level, security has to be good enough to prevent casual eavesdropping and MTM attacks.

Zoom is not only good enough for me, it's good enough for Fortune companies with tens of thousands of employees. But I'm not trying to sway anyones' thinking, just passing along my own opinion.

 

[icanhazmac]

But I'm not trying to sway anyones' thinking, just passing along my own opinion.

Same, someone had to counter your cheerleading. Though it seems I'm not the only one.

 

[I7guy]

Same, someone had to counter your cheerleading. Though it seems I'm not the only one.

I think with zoom there is much to cheer about, even though they have got some criticism in the past.

 

[Airforcekid]

(Zoom is not only good enough for me, it's good enough for Fortune companies with tens of thousands of employees. But I'm not trying to sway anyones' thinking, just passing along my own opinion.

I can confidently say as an officer in US cyber command this won’t be true for very long especially for multinational companies that have a presence in Japan, Taiwan and India. I can’t disclose the official recommendation by the DoD since it’s a public company but it isn’t pretty.

 

[Tech198]

I'm just wondering why it took this long to decide..

They got there in the end,,, so no point in digging up history.

 

[deathpanels]

In a U-turn by the popular videoconferencing platform, Zoom this week announced it will make end-to-end encryption available to all users, both paid and unpaid.

End-to-end encryption ensures no one but the participants and their devices can see and hear what is happening in a meeting, although it will exclude people who call in to Zoom meetings from a telephone line.

Zoom has attracted millions of free and paying customers amid the global health crisis, with stay-at-home measures causing a surge in the number of people working remotely.

Zoom originally said its initial decision to offer full encryption to premium users only had been based on "a combination of technological, safety and business factors," however in this case it appears as though public pressure won out and led the company to reconsider.

Apple already uses end-to-end encryption to protect FaceTime users as call data travels between two or more devices. Even Apple can't decrypt the call and listen in to user's conversations.

Article Link: Zoom Now Says End-to-End Encryption Will Be Available for All Users

Unfortunately, this is a theme for Zoom. They are a ethically dubious company that recently deleted an account run by activists, at the behest of the Chinese Community Party.

 

[0924487]

I hope end-to-end encryption will come to all iCloud services. I currently disabled most iCloud services due to security concerns. Safari, Messages, and Signal are all not available as end-to-end encrypted iCloud backup services.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

I hope end-to-end encryption will come to all iCloud services. I currently disabled most iCloud services due to security concerns. Safari, Messages, and Signal are all not available as end-to-end encrypted iCloud backup services.

I thought I read Apple changed their mind about that and aren’t doing it, due to pressure from Congress.

edit, found it.

Apple Reportedly Dropped Plans for End-to-End Encrypted iCloud Backups After FBI Objected

More than two years ago, Apple informed the FBI that it planned to roll out end-to-end encryption for iCloud backups, according to Reuters. Apple...

www.macrumors.com

 

[FromTheWild]

I couldn't tell about Zoom, but when I do screen sharing on Skype for Mac, it lasts 1-3 minutes before it hangs with a beach ball and then it crashes.

I can't wait until my job switches to Teams, but what scares me is it's yet another Microsoft product lol

We use Teams at work, if there is one app that gets my 2020 Macbook Pro's fans going into overdrive, its Teams!