We can’t avoid Zoom. For better or for worse, it has become synonymous with video conferencing, like “Band-Aid” and “Kleenex.” Zoom has made such a powerful first impression that it is often demanded by parents as the primary means of video conference for their children. It’s the path of least resistance for video conferencing with people who have other priorities and aren’t familiar with other platforms like Teams or Meet.

However, Zoom is, at best, a necessary evil. Here are 3 warnings and recommendations regarding the app.

#1: Zoom’s privacy policy used to be absolutely predatory. It’s better now, but privacy is still at risk and not (yet) SOPPA compliant.

Zoom’s original privacy policy allowed it to use content from meetings for any purpose they wished. That changed in late March after consumer uproar: https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/zoom-tightens-privacy-policy-says-no-user-videos-analyzed-for-ads/

Bear in mind that the Student Online Privacy Protection Act (SOPPA) will not allow CASE to use Zoom after 2020-2021 without a specific CASE-Zoom privacy contract that meets SOPPA’s stringent requirements. That may not happen.

Recommendation: As much as possible, begin migrating people in your daily CASE work toward other platforms that CASE officially supports, including Google Meet and Microsoft Teams.

#2: The Zoom app that downloads to your computer is a dangerous security hole that hackers are actively exploiting.

When you try to join a Zoom meeting, Zoom prompts you to download an app. This app brings some valuable features, but it also has a history of allowing hackers to gain access to your computer. Zoom has patched many of the security flaws, but it now finds itself in a race against hackers who know that it’s the most popular video chat platform.

To make matters worse, hackers are also pushing out fake or corrupted versions of the Zoom app that are indistinguishable from the real one.

Recommendation:As much as possible, use the Web version of Zoom instead of the app. If you can live without the app, uninstall it from your computer.

#3: The company is deceptive and irresponsible in its past behavior.

Zoom has claimed incorrectly that its product offers “end to end” encryption, which means that nobody could access your video data except for you and your participants–not even Zoom. But this is not true. https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/31/21201234/zoom-end-to-end-encryption-video-chats-meetings

In fact the company has a kind of “Facebook-ish” corporate pattern of using irresponsible methods to gain traction, and then only correcting them after a public outcry. https://onezero.medium.com/zoom-is-a-nightmare-so-why-is-everyone-still-using-it-1b05a4efd5cc 

This means that even if Zoom is doing some of the right things at the moment, we have no reason to believe they will do so consistently unless they’re receiving negative press.

Recommendation: Avoid Zoom if possible, especially with students. Use alternatives.