Zoom saw a huge spike in its user base amid the COVID 19 pandemic, as work from home became the new normal. The Zoom Meeting app drew criticism due to some privacy and security concerns. Zoom on Wednesday said that it will offer “Zoom end to end encryption” to its users for Zoom video conferencing.”
A trial version will be launched in July because of some zoom safety issues. And the new feature will be available for paid as well as free accounts. In order to prevent cybercrimes, now the zoom video conferencing will be the end to end encrypted and the feature will only be available after verification of the mobile phone number.
During the first quarter of 2020, the Zoom app has become the most widely used video conferencing service. It reported a profit of $328 million during its February-April quarter, up by 169 percent year-on-year basis.
In April, Zoom meeting app was bombarded by user complaints and a shareholder lawsuit, accusing the company of misleading its customers by overstating the zoom safety issues. Soon, the shares plunged as many companies and some governments stopped using the services, some even announced the ban of using the zoom app.
Taiwan and Germany came up with restrictions on the usage of Zoom app. Elon Musk’s SpaceX banned the app citing security flaws. The Indian government also cautioned officials not to use the zoom video conferencing app.
Zoom then hired former Chief Security Officer at Facebook Alex Stamos in April. Mainly to bolster its security and come up with security upgrades.
“We are pleased to share that we have identified a path forward that balances the legitimate right of all users to privacy and the safety of users on our platform. This will enable us to offer E2EE as an advanced add-on feature for all of our users around the globe — free and paid — while maintaining the ability to prevent and fight abuse on our platform,” said Zoom Chief Executive Eric Yuan, in Zoom Blog Post.
One time verification process such as a text message is compulsory to access the special “end to end encryption” feature. Free users will be asked additional information to verify before accessing the new feature. End-to-end encryption will be optional for users.