In early April, New York City banned Zoom for school use - even though “thousands of teachers and students began using it for remote learning,” according to an article penned by Chalkbeat’s Alex Zimmerman. Much has been written about these problems in recent weeks, so I’ll give you a summary of what you really should know about the service - and others. Both accidentally and intentionally, the company has put your privacy at risk.

Thus I ignored one of the more difficult questions about these services: To what degree are Zoom and its competitors spying on us?īecause I ultimately recommended Zoom as the easiest video-conferencing service for users of any technical skill - yes, even Uncle Fred could get it working - I’m going to focus on its failings. I wrote that article in March, just as we were getting used to the new world of stay-at-home socializing. In a previous article about Zoom and similar services ( AskWoody issue), I concentrated on video-conferencing etiquette and ease of use (or lack thereof). With good reason, people started asking, “Is Zoom safe?” And then came the reports of questionable privacy policies and online trolls crashing meetings. Problems kept popping up, often followed by official apologies. Family get-togethers, schools, charity events, remote concerts, and even television hosts now depend on the service.īut while Zoom’s stock was exploding, the programmers who built the platform seemed to be tripping over their shoelaces.

My wife, a faculty member at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, uses Zoom to teach her students miles away. Thanks to the pandemic, what was created as a business-conferencing tool has become the de facto means for ordinary people to connect to each other. Have you noticed that the start of every article about Zoom suggests that it has quickly turned into the most needed app on the planet?

Deleted zoom keybase app images being