mZoom and only paid end-to-end encryption

“Free users for sure we don’t want to give that because we also want to work together with the FBI, with local law enforcement in case some people use Zoom for a bad purpose” — that’s what Eric Yuan, the CEO of Zoom said recently. The community and press didn’t wait for a long time to react: many articles popped up, attacking Zoom. But was there a reason? Let’s try to figure out

Yes, over this pandemic Zoom got not only huge popularity but it also profited so much from the Network Effect. And this quote from the Zoom CEO sounds like a claim for an aggressive and “not nice” marketing — if you want to be protected, then you should pay. If you don’t want to pay — be ready to be watched by the “Big Brother”. That’s how most of the media reacted to this.

But as it always happens, things are a bit more complicated, and this phrase was taken out of context. After the Twitter battle and several publications, the community seemed to have risen against Zoom, and the company responded with another interview, addressing points that were really essential to understand the context. Out of what we got, their point is the following.

Like any other service that connects people, Zoom is a place that can be used to break the law and attack people in some sense. Some of those actions can be very illegal — like child abuse. Therefore, the company must take steps towards preventing crime and chasing criminals. One of the ways to do it is to verify people who use your service not only with email but with other means as well (e.g. scans of documents). If you are a paid user, Zoom will verify your identity and basically claim to the government that there is no need to check you, they basically cross-proof you.

But the media confrontation against Zoom was so strong, that the company announced that the end-to-end encryption will be available even for free users if those will verify their phone number with a text message. So far it looks like a good compromise — people who use the service in a very protected way are verified.

What do you think about the Zoom position regarding privacy?