Popular video conferencing Zoom has long stated that it’s end to end encrypted, but that is not the case, a report revealed. Typically, end to end encryption means that the content between users is secured, barring even the company itself from snooping in.
When asked whether the company uses E2E encryption on Zoom video meetings, the spokesperson termed it as “impossible” as of now. Instead, the company uses standard TLS, the same encryption technology leveraged by browsers to secure HTTPS sites.
This is actually misleading, but the company doesn’t think so. E2E has a different definition in the Zoom world.
“When we use the phrase ‘End to End’ in our other literature, it is in reference to the connection being encrypted from Zoom end point to Zoom end point,” a spokesperson said in response to the report. “The content is not decrypted as it transfers across the Zoom cloud.”
On the bright side, Zoom’s in-meeting text chat seems to have E2E, the publication found out. The company says it stores encryption keys for the in-meeting text chat on local devices, which means they have no access to them whatsoever.
For Zoom business is booming lately which has been fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic as more people work from home. The company has seen massive usage increase in the past month, which has made them score good points in the corporate world.
But for privacy folks, they now have their eyes wide open on the company’s privacy practices, considering it has been the biggest winner in video teleconferencing as people stay at home — shares have grown over 50 percent in February alone, according to MarketWatch.
Most recently, the company was found sharing users’ personal data with Facebook, but they have updated the app removing the “bad code.” In spite of that, the company is being sued for the same.
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