Zoom Video Communications is an American company founded in 2011 by Eric Yuan, based in San Jose, California. It is best known for its Zoom virtual video calling and meeting system, available on desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets.
| Type | Publicly traded company and communication software | |
|---|---|---|
| ISIN | US98980L1017 | |
| Industry | videoconference | |
| Legal form | Limited liability company | |
| Foundation | April 21, 2011 | |
| Founder | Eric Yuan | |
| Headquarter | San Jose (United States) | |
| Employees | 2000 | |
| Website | zoom.us | |
Zoom became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. It went from having 10 million active users in 2019, to more than 300 million at the end of April 2020. Before the spread of the coronavirus, the company’s shares cost $70. By March 23, 2020, they were worth $160, or a total capitalization of more than $44 billion. The main shareholder of Zoom, Eric Yuan, appears, since the pandemic, in the list of the richest people in the world, with a fortune estimated at 5500 million dollars.
Despite the global success, the use of Zoom has been banned by multiple governments and companies because of the privacy and security risks involved. Also, from the end of April 2020, users with a commercial Zoom subscription have the option to have their calls not go through China. In late May 2020, Zoom announced that calls from those paying for a commercial subscription will be encrypted (in order to make them unintelligible to unauthorized recipients). Calls from non-paying people will not be protected.
In November 2020, the company admitted to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it had misled consumers since 2016 through a series of false claims about call encryption and video security, and that it had secretly installed programs on users’ devices.
History of Zoom Video Communications
Zoom was founded by Eric Yuan, former vice president of Cisco Webex, who left Cisco in 2011 to start Zoom with the help of 40 engineers. Zoom released a preview in September 2012 that could host conferences of up to 15 participants. In January 2013, the company raised $6 million in an investment round by Qualcomm Ventures, Jerry Yang, WebEx founder Subrah Iyar and Cisco advisor Dan Scheinman, launching version 1.0 of the program, with the number of participants per conference increasing to 25. At the end of its first month, Zoom had 400,000 users and by May 2013 it had 1 million users.
On April 18, 2019, the company became a publicly traded company reaching a valuation of 16 billion dollars on its first day of trading.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the social distancing mandate, many began using Zoom as a platform for telecommuting, distance learning, and online social relationships. Many educational institutions switched to online classes using Zoom. The company offered its services to primary schools for free in many countries.
By February 2020, Zoom had gained 2.2 million users, more users than it accumulated in all of 2019. In one day in March 2020, the Zoom app was downloaded 343,000 times with approximately 18% of those downloads originating in the United States. Average daily users increased from about 10 million in December 2019 to about 200 million in March 2020. This led to a significant increase in the company’s share price in early 2020, despite a general stock market crash.
In September 2021, Telefónica’s subsidiary, Telefónica Tech, announced an agreement with Zoom Video Communications to become the official distributor for Zoom Meetings, Zoom Webinars, Zoom Phone and Zoom Rooms across the operator geographic footprint. As stated in the statement of the telecommunications company, the alliance will allow the creation of joint business plans in its main markets.
Reviews
Zoom has been criticized for “security flaws and poor design choices” that have resulted in increased scrutiny of its software. In April 2020, CEO Yuan apologized for the security issues, claiming that some of the issues were a result of Zoom having been designed for “large institutions with full IT support.” Zoom responded quickly, agreeing to focus on data privacy and issue a transparency report.
Privacy of Zoom
According to specialized technology sites, Zoom collects user data and transmits it to Facebook, even if the user does not have an account on Facebook. Likewise, the user’s information is made even if they have not created a Zoom account. Such data is sent to the manufacturer Zoom Video Communications and includes, for example: personal data, email addresses, telephones, company data, Facebook profile, etc.
In addition, Zoom collects, stores and shares with third parties the names of all participants of each call or video conference, recordings, shared whiteboards, files and messages sent during calls. In work environments, Zoom reports to the employer if the user is paying attention. The Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that any administrator can join any corporate or institutional call without warning or consent from participants.
The New York Times found that when users entered a conference, the platform sent their data to a system designed to match them with LinkedIn profiles. Those who were subscribers to a corporate product called “LinkedIn Sales Navigator” then appeared a link on the image of each participant with access to all their LinkedIn data, without the Zoom participant knowing, even if he had registered in the conference as “Anonymous” or as “I am not here”. The newspaper discovered that even school data was sent to LinkedIn’s data mining tool.
Security
ESET warned about the risk of using “any kind of free teleconferencing systems,” after testifying about a victimized call by zoombombing.
The FBI (the federal police of the United States) warned about the hijacking of videoconferences and teleclassrooms, a phenomenon it called zoombombing. U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal wrote to Zoom CEO Eric Yuan demanding answers about the company’s “troubling history of programming design habits and security bugs”. The New York State attorney launched an investigation into Zoom’s security and privacy, which resulted in an agreement that commits Zoom to improve and inform the prosecutor about its security measures for three years.
Zoom admitted that a portion of calls in other countries were routed via its servers in China, without indicating what percentage. As the calls were not encrypted from user to user, but only between users and Zoom, the calls were by Chinese law open to the government of that country.
On March 23, 2020, hackers discovered that, because Zoom auto-converts links sent to participants in video calls, they immediately become a vector for thieves to “access shared network resources, such as Exchange servers and storage devices”, that is, shared devices such as hard drives, printers, shared folders, and others.
In April 2020 it transpired that third parties (hackers, thieves, etc.) can enter any Zoom conference and record the video of the participants without users noticing it, even if the meeting organizer has disabled the recordings.
Encryption
This company can perform end-to-end video call encryption, but only this will be available for paid accounts, which may be a security risk for free accounts as their content can be monitored by security agencies or hackers.
Control of the Chinese Government
The account of Humanitarian China, a San Francisco, California-based human rights advocacy organization, was terminated by Zoom Video Communications after “Humanitarian” organized a commemoration of the Tiananmen massacre in Beijing in 1989. While the account was reactivated following the dissemination of the news in the media, Zoom alleged that it canceled the US account to “comply with local laws” (of China). The Washington Post reported on other similar cancellations by Zoom.
Prohibitions
The UK Ministry of Defence banned the use of Zoom in March 2020. Similarly, in April of the same year it was banned by the US companies SpaceX, Tesla, Bank of America; European companies Siemens AG, Ericsson, Daimler AG, Standard Chartered, NXP Semiconductors NV; and Philippines Smart Communications.
Also in April, among public entities NASA, the governments of Taiwan, and India, the Australian Defence Force, the German Foreign Office the National Health Service (UK) and schools in Singapore and Clark County, in Nevada, and Berkeley, in California and New York City.
The ban on New York schools ended on May 6, 2020; however, schools cannot use the generic Zoom available to the public, but a special version that includes certain protections, including that only teachers can share screen or invite students to meetings.
While Canada’s government has not banned Zoom, it has also not approved it “for any exchange that requires secure communications”. The University of Wisconsin-Madison warned that it cannot be used to discuss sensitive, restricted, or internal-use material. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement prohibited employees and vendors from installing the publicly available Zoom but allows them to use the government’s version of it.
The U.S. Senate has not banned Zoom but has warned all senators not to use it.
Zoom fatigue
Zoom fatigue refers to the tiredness, worry, or burnout associated with the excessive use of virtual communication platforms, particularly video conferencing. The people mainly affected are those who use platforms such as Google Meet, Skype, FaceTime and, especially, Zoom Video on a daily basis.
The term emerged during the context of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, many people began to use this due to the obligation of social distancing, many began to use Zoom as a platform for telecommuting, distance education, and online social relationships.
Zoombombing
When a participant in a Zoom video conference unexpectedly sends pornographic or offensive materials to the entire group, the phenomenon is called zoombombing. For example, on a call from Chipotle Together in March 2020, a participant sent pornography to hundreds of telespeakers, whereupon Chipotle left Zoom and moved Together to Instagram. Zoom has published guidance to help prevent the problem, which has been featured at both educational and commercial events.
To enter a conference call you need a code and often a password. The keys are published in internet forums where some users share their accesses. The keys are published by students and others interested in destabilizing their own institutions.
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