Zoom Meeting app plans to offer strong encryption to paying customers


he videoconferencing provider Zoom plans to strengthen the video call encryption Hosted by customers and payment institutions such as schools, but not by users of their free consumer accounts, a company official said on Friday.

The company, whose business has flourished thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, discussed the decision in an appeal with civil liberties groups and child victims of sexual violence on Thursday, and Security consultant Zoom Alex Stamos confirmed it on Friday.

In an interview, Stamos said the plan is subject to change and it is not yet clear which nonprofits or other users, such as political dissidents, if any, could qualify for accounts that allow safer video meetings.

He added that a combination of technological, security and commercial factors had entered the plan, prompting mixed reactions from privacy advocates.

Zoom has attracted millions of free and paid customers in the middle of the pandemic, in part because users could join a meeting, which is happening now 300 million times a day, without registering.

But it did give troublemakers a chance to come together, sometimes after pretending to be invited.

Gennie Gebhart, researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who was on call Thursday, said she expected The zoom will change course and offer a protected video more generally.

But Jon Callas, a technology partner of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the strategy seemed to be a reasonable compromise.

Security experts and law enforcement have warned that sexual predators and other criminals are increasingly using encrypted communications to avoid detection.

“Those of us who do secure communication believe that we have to do things about really horrible things,” said Callas, who previously sold paid encryption services.

“Charging money for end-to-end encryption is one way to get rid of the riff-raff.”

Zoom hired Stamos and other experts after a series of security breaches that led some institutions to ban its use. Last week, Zoom published a white paper on their encryption plans, without saying how far they would go.

“At the same time that Zoom is trying to improve security, they also significantly improve their confidence and security,” said Stamos, a former Facebook security official.

“The CEO analyzes various arguments. The current plan includes paid customers and business accounts where the company knows who they are. “

Fully encrypting each meeting would not allow Zoom’s security and trust team to join as a meeting participant to combat real-time abuse, added Stamos.

An end-to-end model, which means that no one other than participants and their devices can see and hear what is going on, should also exclude callers from a telephone line.

From a business point of view, it is difficult to earn money by offering a sophisticated and expensive encryption service for free. Facebook plans to fully encrypt Messenger, but gets huge amounts of money from its other services.

Other providers of encrypted communications charge commercial users or act as non-profit organizations, such as the creators of Signal.

Zoom is also dealing with regulators such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which is investigating its previous encryption allegations that have been criticized as exaggerated or false, said Stamos and another person familiar with the matter.

With the Department of Justice and some members of Congress condemning the Strong encryption, Zoom this could attract new unwanted attention through major expansion in this area, said privacy experts.

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