It mostly occurred when meeting hosts did not know that they had to opt into using certain features to fully protect their calls. The company addressed the issue, so paying customers can now control through which countries their video conferences are routed.Īnother problem was Zoom-bombing, which refers to people hijacking in-progress meetings with inappropriate content. These China-based servers had been generating encryption keys that were given to users in other countries, which is considered a security risk. The company then rolled back that decision, too.Īnother controversy was related to encryption keys. After some backlash, the company reversed its decision saying it would encrypt all calls, but only if free users verified their accounts with a phone number. In June 2020, the company announced it would not provide E2EE to free account holders. E2EE is not available for Zoom via other devices, such as when you dial in via telephone. It had to amend that claim to clarify that end-to-end encryption is used only for calls among Zoom apps and Zoom Rooms, provided no one is recording the call. First was the company's statement that Zoom used end-to-end encryption (E2EE). Several of Zoom's controversies have centered on encryption. We at PCMag believe users should be not only aware of the criticisms, but also informed of the facts before deciding whether to use Zoom. The more people use Zoom, as so many have while working from home, the more it's come under scrutiny, which is probably for the best. The app's generous, free version also makes it a top choice for non-business, online get-togethers. For its stability alone, it's an Editors' Choice winner among video conferencing software.

Long before the pandemic, Zoom's mission was to master the backend technology needed to make video calls less glitchy and more reliable, and the company has succeeded. With or without its boost in popularity, Zoom shines for its ease of use, excellent features, and phenomenal stability.

Zoom Meetings (typically just shortened to Zoom) went from being a video conferencing app that hardly anyone outside the tech industry had heard of to a household name and verb.

In a capitalistic system where winners and losers are declared in every tragedy, Zoom got the bittersweet luck of the draw when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Best Hosted Endpoint Protection and Security Software.

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