Here’s how you can greatly
improve your Zoom privacy and security in a few simple steps
By Tony Anscombe
Zoom is attracting a lot of
attention in the media due to the mass uptake of videoconferencing services
during the near global lockdown due to COVID-19. They are adapting to sudden
global overnight demand and success, something most companies can only dream
of. Companies, like Zoom, offer free products and services to attract new
users; making it free removes the barrier of that payment imposes and hopefully
locks the user in to a service long term. Then at some stage the user may
become a paying customer, either for additional functionality on the service
they use or for other products offered by the company.
We all use free services –
search and email being great examples; in reality, though, there is no such
thing as free. Companies need to monetize usage to enable them to provide the
service or product for free; this typically involves some form of advertising
or the collection of data through use. A company providing free services
typically has a business model and privacy policy that reflects the way they
make money. Zoom’s sudden success caught them with their pants down … they had
a business model and privacy policy to support a free, slick and frictionless
service, and then they suddenly became the default go-to place for millions of
organizations requiring videoconferencing in a rush.
I am not defending Zoom;
they have had and continue to have numerous privacy-
and security-related issues –
I am just providing a perspective that they may need time to adapt their
business model and privacy policy to reflect their sudden success. This can be
witnessed in the recent product updates released to fix issues and the recent
changes made to their privacy policy.
Some organizations are now
reflecting on their hasty decision to use Zoom and are migrating away to other
videoconferencing services that suit their needs more appropriately. According
to TechCrunch, New York City banned schools from using Zoom,
citing security concerns – but a city spokesperson also did not rule out
returning to Zoom. The reason organizations fled to Zoom as a de-facto standard
is due to the simplicity or the user experience and that it offers a free
solution. This enabled organizations to adopt the service quickly with no
training and removed the need to raise purchase orders.
Not all organizations may
be in a position to evaluate other options or commit to paying for a service,
especially in the small business sector where companies are struggling just to
survive, or education districts that are strapped for cash. If you have made
the decision to use Zoom, below are my suggested recommended settings that are
best used in tandem with our article from yesterday on how
to password-protect your Zoom meetings.
Setting up a
Zoom meeting
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