Zoom's end-to-end call encryption service is only for paid users

• Zoom has said that it will not provide free users with end-to-end encryption.
• This was announced by the company’s CEO during a recent earnings call with the investors.
• Zoom has said that this will allow it to cooperate with law enforcement agencies in case its platform is misused.

Video calling and conference platform Zoom has emerged as one of the top platforms amid the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. However, it has had its fair share of privacy and security issues.

Issues like the Zoom bombing led to several companies prohibiting their employees from using the platform. The Indian government also released an advisory asking users to adopt some measures to ensure their privacy while using Zoom.

Zoom announces 90-day feature freeze

To solve the security and privacy issues, Zoom CEO Eric S. Yuan announced a 90-day feature freeze in April to focus on fixing the privacy and security issues. “Over the next 90 days, we are committed to dedicating the resources needed to better identify, address, and fix issues proactively,” said Yuan.

One of the features that was expected to solve these issues was end-to-end encryption. However, during a recent earnings call with its investors, Yuan revealed that this feature will be reserved only for the platform’s paid users.

End-to-end encryption will not be available for free users

While announcing the feature, Yuan said that the company wants to keep this feature away from free users so that it can help law enforcement agencies in case its platform is misused.

"Free users for sure we don’t want to give that because we also want to work together with the FBI, with local law enforcement in case some people use Zoom for a bad purpose." Said Yuan.

One of the reasons could be the issues faced by platforms like WhatsApp and Apple who have been unable to trace the origins of suspicious or misleading messages.

Zoom reports huge growth due to Coronavirus

Zoom reported $328.2 million in revenue in Q1, which is up by 169% year-on-year. The cash flow increased from $22.2m during the Q1 last year to $259m this year.

The company added that a majority of its paying customers were companies with more than 10 employees. It reported 2,65,400 such companies, a 354% increase compared to last year.

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