Following Zoom’s addition of end-to-end encryption, the company’s CEO made it clear that only paying customers benefit from it.
Zoom has become one of the dominant video communication platforms during the coronavirus pandemic, going from 10 million daily users to well over 200 million, and hitting 300 million at times. In spite of its dominance, Zoom has faced significant criticism for weak security. The company was forced to put a 90-day moratorium on new features, as it pivoted to security fixes.
One of the biggest criticisms was the type of encryption Zoom used, with its marketing giving the impression it was end-to-end when, in fact, it was not. Zoom quickly moved to address the issue and offer true end-to-end encryption.
In spite of that, not everyone will benefit from the upgrade. According to Bloomberg, in a call with analysts, CEO Eric Yuan indicated free users are out in the cold.
“Free users for sure we don’t want to give that because we also want to work together with FBI, with local law enforcement in case some people use Zoom for a bad purpose,” said Yuan.
The move is already receiving criticism and it will be interesting to see if Zoom sticks to its guns or upgrades free users as well.