Lion in Winter

I've never posted in here, but because I know nothing about tech. But given that so many people are turning to Zoom, I thought this might be a useful bit of info. My own company has not forbidden its use on any company system or equipment.

https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...o-conferencing

SpoogleDrummer

It's a shame for the company really, I imagine they were just plodding along then this sudden rise in popularity has exposed issues that could potentially damage them. I know several schools/universities that use Zoom and we even considered it ourselves when GoToMeeting forced annual subscriptions on to us rather than monthly but in the end switching was more hassle than it was worth for us.

Personally I'd have no more issue using Zoom than I would Skype or any other chat client, at the end of the day if you connect to the internet you're taking a risk regardless of what you have installed so it's best to keep critical systems separate.

Kooky.

It's quite troubling. I haven't personally used it for about a year but my previous NFP organisation used it regularly, and we had no problems. We were very security conscious, always knew who was online, didn't record, etc., but they were usually smallish attendances so easy to monitor. I read a tweet the other night that a similar US-based group having a social zoom was joined by a Nazi group (and one of the participants was an ex colleague so I believe it).

My husband is on zoom calls about 12 hours a day. With recent events his company is looking at alternatives; its business is IT security.

Lion in Winter

Yes. My post should have read that my company now forbids its use, not "not forbid". We have a lot of personal data, so Zoom is now verboten.

kimilseung

We are using Zoom at work (High School) Zoom is approved but Google Voice is not because of security issues. There are some legal issue for privacy, especially for IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meetings, but I have done all of them in Zoom since the lockdown.
Its a pity that Google Voice is verboten, as I do not want to use my personal phone, as records could be demanded as these contacts are public and/or accountable. In some ways it doesn't seem that big a deal, on the other hand I want to keep away from any unforeseen consequences of that. We have been told that we can not use Zoom for one to one with kids, unless an adult approves and is seen at some point in the video, also told that we can cover ourselves by recording the session. We are still receiving contradictory and I think cover their arses information at the moment. A lot of this is still in the air and being changed day to day as we proceed.

Kooky.

Mr K says he read an article about how Zoom are responding to all this, they are making all the right noises and hopefully addressing the issues. I guess it remains to be seen how much brand damage they've done.

Lion in Winter

For work, we are allowed Skype for business and Microsoft teams. That's it.

calman014

You are probably better to remove ZOOM altogether at the moment. Their security is a mess.

SKYPE
WHATSAPP
FACETIME
WEBEX
are good alternatives for now.

Microsoft TEAMS will get a personal version soon, including webconferencing.

GOTO is a commercial alternative.

calman014

ZOOM has just announced that the free version will not be encrypted..so another good reason to avoid it.

spouse of scouse

Re the first line of your post, I thought the same when I read this article a couple of months ago https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52240251 From 10 million to 200 million users per day is huge! Zoom state in this article that they are dedicating the next 90 days to resolving their security issues, but it does seem like a lot of damage has been done to their brand.

BristolUK

Zoom Insecurities.

Sounds like the name given in jest to a genuine Financial Investor company but one with a record of losses for its clients.

Jsmth321

All this moving towards video conferencing caught me off guard, everyone wants to do it now for interviews, doctor appointments, and such, but I have neither a microphone (the easy part) or webcam (well expensive ones are available, but everyone seems out of the cheap ones.) so I use the old technology of a telephone

kimilseung

Which has all these apps, a microphone and a camera.and you can walk around while you do the conference/meeting/interview, light and mobile.
I've gone in the opposite direction. Since lock down, I have added a green screen, bought a light for myself, two to light the green screen, a condenser microphone, and most recent, an Elgato Stream Deck, which is a button box, for showing and hiding different windows on screen, among its other functions. Al over the top for my real needs, but it keeps my interest going.

livinginnyc

My employer has had Zoom banned for a few years now and is very picky around which VC tools are permitted for use on corporate equipment (we have an internal app store which is the only place you can install apps from - thankfully Spotify is permitted or i'd be insane). For mobile devices, most Google & all Facebook apps are prohibited too (and TikTok which is apparently really bad).

I honestly am sick of Video conferencing now. I bought a decent-ish headset, ring light & few other things to look presentable & heard but people constantly talk over one another followed by the awkward silence & 'go ahead', and then you have the 'big' meetings (with like 100+ people in them) and someone inevitably forgot to mute and starts eating, farts.etc - what a mess.

Jsmth321

I don't do fancy technology like that.

Its more about being uncomfortable using video chat more then anything else, its not something I am comfortable with especially with these companies using AI more and more and not even talking to a human. I do not look forward to the future, not being a tech person all this tech is making things too complicated for me.


It honestly never occurred to me to use an app on a phone to video conference. ha ha