Zoom is racing to fix its biggest issue as video call app surges in popularity

Zoom is more popular than it has ever been, primarily due to more people relying on video conferencing for communication as they work from home amid the coronavirus pandemic. But dramatically increasing user numbers has come with increased scrutiny, too.

One of the biggest uproars transpired after The Intercept reported that Zoom does not offer end-to-end encryption as it previously claimed on both its website and security white paper.

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In response to the controversy about its security and privacy, Zoom founder and CEO Eric S. Yuan recently published a detailed post on the service’s blog.

Yuan not only apologised for “falling short” user expectations for privacy and security, but he also declared Zoom is shifting all its engineering resources to focus on “trust, safety, and privacy issues” for the next 90 days.

The Zoom CEO explained: “These new, mostly consumer use cases have helped us uncover unforeseen issues with our platform. Dedicated journalists and security researchers have also helped to identify pre-existing ones.

“We appreciate the scrutiny and questions we have been getting – about how the service works, about our infrastructure and capacity, and about our privacy and security policies. These are the questions that will make Zoom better, both as a company and for all its users.

“Over the next 90 days, we are committed to dedicating the resources needed to better identify, address, and fix issues proactively. We are also committed to being transparent throughout this process. We want to do what it takes to maintain your trust.”

Yuan also vowed to host a weekly webinar in which he will provide privacy and security updates to the Zoom community.

By far one of the biggest announcements in the CEO’s blog post was certainly about Zoom’s user numbers though. He said by the end of December last year users, both free and paid, were “approximately 10 million”.

However, Yuan claimed last month the service reached over 200 million daily users, both free and paid once again. Safe to say, that’s a prodigious spike in users in an incredibly short period.

The latest blog post from the Zoom CEO appears to be part of the service’s new efforts to be more transparent with users. Of course, it’s yet to be seen what kinds of privacy and security features will be introduced following a load of controversy. Fingers crossed the service finally introduces video conferencing with true end-to-end encryption!

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