Zoom has reversed course and will roll out end-to-end encryption to paid and free users, though free users will need to submit a cell phone number to activate it.
That makes it easier for Zoom to identify who you are, but the company says phone numbers are necessary to help it prevent abuse. “Many leading companies perform similar steps on account creation to reduce the mass creation of abusive accounts,” the company explained in a Wednesday blog post.
The end-to-end encryption feature means that no one — including Zoom or government authorities — will be able to decrypt your video session data unless they can participate in the meeting. The private keys that encrypt the video data are instead stored on your device.
Earlier this month, Zoom faced some backlash when CEO Eric Yuan said the company would only provide end-to-end encryption to paid users since Zoom was working with the FBI and local law enforcement to track down suspected criminals using the free version of its service. “Free users, for sure, we don’t want to give that (end-to-end encryption), right?” Yuan said during the earnings call.
Company advisor Alex Stamos later explained Zoom has been trying to stop people from sharing child porn and invading video meetings to spew hate speech. In some cases, the users will host a video session specifically to “facilitate really horrible abuse,” he added. “These hosts mostly come in from VPNs, using throwaway email addresses, create self-service orgs and host a handful of meetings before creating a new identity,” Stamos said.
Nevertheless, some critics called out Zoom for denying the privacy feature to free users. So the company is trying to make the encryption available for all while balancing the need to fight abuse. But it’ll be up to users to decide whether the compromise is worth it.
To activate the function, free users will only need to submit their phone number in a one-time process. When you host a video meeting, you’ll then have the option of turning on the “E2EE” feature. But you’ll need to activate it each time you host a video session.
An early beta of the end-to-end encryption feature is slated to launch next month. By default, Zoom encrypts all video sessions using the AES 256 GCM high-grade encryption standard. However, the encryption keys are stored on Zoom’s servers.
