I’m still a big fan of Zoom. Crowd responds with, "What? How can you say that in light of all the security issues they have been exposed to have recently? Their privacy policy is under investigation by New York’s Attorney General and their encryption has been anything but consistent. Are you crazy?"
Allow me to explain.
Zoom with all its flaws, seems to have become the go-to online video conferencing platform for many during this pandemic crisis. For me, that’s not hard to understand. It’s easy to use, it allows up to 100 people in one meeting, it is full of features including screen sharing and break-out rooms, and above all...it’s FREE! But the pandemic has given the online meeting platform a huge boost which has in turn exposed it’s flaws and the fact that when you get to hundreds of millions of users, maybe it was “not ready for prime-time”.
ZOOM SECURITY ISSUES
Because of Zoom’s “FREEdom” and ease-of-use, it’s also been easy to hack by bad people who seek at a minimum to disrupt your meeting to at worst steal valuable information. Paul Wagenseil said in an article posted on Tomsguide.com, “Cybercriminals may have registered hundreds of new Zoom-related website addresses in the past few weeks, according to researchers at Israeli security firm Check Point. Many of these sites are being used in phishing attacks to grab victims' Zoom usernames and passwords.” And if that isn’t bad enough, Zoom was forced to announce that its technical support would only be available for its paying customers.
Additionally, Zoom’s privacy policy and information regarding its encryption has not been consistent. On May 7th they announced they reached an agreement with New York State’s Attorney General’s office with regards to investigating their privacy policies. They have also announced the purchase of a startup named Keybase so that they can truly implement an end-to-end encryption for all Zoom meetings.
From phishing scams, to embedded malware, to foreign hackers, Zoom has suffered from its success and lack of preparedness for that success. But Zoom isn’t the only platform experiencing issues and having questionable privacy policies.
Consumer reports said in a blog post: Cisco Webex, Microsoft’s Teams and Skype, and Google’s Duo, Meet and Hangouts do too. “All three companies can collect data while you’re in a videoconference, combine it with information from data brokers and other sources to build consumer profiles, and potentially tap into the videos for purposes like training facial recognition systems,” Consumer Reports said. But there is a bright side.
ZOOM RESPONDS WITH ACTION AND ZOOM 5.0
With all this attention to its flaws, Zoom has been fast to respond and is making it a much safer video conferencing platform. In fact, tech journalist, Kim Zetter said on Twitter, “Zoom will soon be the most secure conferencing tool out there.” In its latest version, Zoom 5.0, they have enabled passwords for most meetings which in turn will help to stop Zoombombing. Zoom has also made it harder for users to share meeting IDs accidentally. Meeting hosts can now vet unknown participants before they even enter a meeting.
Zoom has created a “security icon” which packages a number of controls that allow the host to easily lock a meeting, restrict chat and screensharing. With Zoom 5.0 you can even remove and report a participant. The attention has brought with it, action on the part of Zoom, and I respect that. They faced their problems and are doing something about it. Does this make Zoom the best and most secure online meeting tool for any and all needs? I'm not saying that. However, I would say, depending on your needs, it has a lot going for it and is definitely worth using again.
CHOOSE THE PLATFORM THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU
We all know that meeting virtually has become the “new normal”. There are a number of virtual meeting applications and platforms that can boost the value of meeting virtually. Some are super simple, easy and even free, while others charge according to usage and services. It’s important to choose an application based on your team’s needs. Use the following descriptions to help you identify the type of virtual platform that is best for you.
Simple: Ideal for one to six people. Examples include individual one-on-one or small group meetings (less than six participants) where contact and discussion are the main requirements.
· Google Hangouts
· Google Meet
· Zoom
Small Business Team Meetings: Ideal for meetings with 2 to 20 people to discuss and coordinate action. Examples include team meetings where participants need to share information, often requiring space sharing, ability to present, cloud storage, scheduling, calendar syncing or chatting (instant message) to name a few.
· Google Meet
· Zoom
· Go-to-meeting
· Microsoft Teams
· Appear-in
Enterprise Meetings: Need to scale from 2 to 100 or more participants. These meetings require space sharing, whiteboards, chat, scheduling, calendar syncing, cloud storage, vanity URLs, custom emails and breakout rooms for use with small groups during larger meetings.
· Zoom
· Microsoft Teams
· Cisco Webex
· BlueJeans
· Big Blue Button
Trainings and Business Events: Need to accommodate large numbers of participants, multiple break-out rooms, virtual avatars, scheduling, custom emails, custom graphics and event design.
· Virtway
· Vedamo
· Newro
· AdobeConnect
For more information on these web-based applications and services, features and pricing, take a look at the following links:
CONCLUSION
There is a plethora of online meeting platforms out there. None are perfect, but what really matters is choosing the right platform for your needs and budget. If it’s running your average business meeting with between 2 and 100 participants, I find it hard to beat Zoom at its low, low price of FREE! But there has been a downside with numerous issues coming to light with its recent explosion of success brought on by the pandemic. However, Zoom has responded quickly to these issues. They have made many changes with their latest Zoom 5.0 version and are surely going to turn those lemons into lemonade. I say, they are worth giving another chance.
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