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This bothers me so much - as I have personally recommended zoom to many people and customers. People that have likely seen that I spend an unusual amount of tim

This bothers me so much - as I have personally recommended zoom to many people and customers. People that have likely seen that I spend an unusual amount of time focused on computer security, backups, and care in communications. If I remember correctly, zoom used to have on the front page - use this it's encrypted, and 'even used by us govt something-something' - so I assumed it was completely secure. I actually refused to use other conference services much to the bemoans of many clients who already had other 'goto' software installed, used and understood - and convinced them that in order to talk turkey we needed to use the real secure zoom system. It passed the smell test at the time for me because they also had paid plans which meant to me a legitimate business that did not need to slay privacy with ads and such, as they had a clear path to make money. Now they are tarnished, and my reputation with several clients and doctors and others may be as well - as this is getting mainstream press (I think that's a good thing actually) - I'm livid about this. I agree with below it is also fraud - and another commentator mentioned they changed to "your client connection is encrypted" is still deception imho. Needs a big asterisk and real explanation of the lack of privacy.

tomcooks 7y ago
Only recommend free software, this way you minimize reputation drama
- criley2 7y ago
  Generally speaking, free software UX is so bad that I would never recommend it to most people I talk to because 1) I don't want to train them on it 2) I don't want to support them on it 3) It isn't good enough for them to use without 1-2 So I pick the shiny costly commercial version that comes with training and support. I mean, I've done the recommend my parents and older coworkers use difficult OSS software thing in my past, and I honestly regret it. No one won.
- mmm_grayons 7y ago
  Sadly, my experience has been the opposite, because open-source stuff usually takes more work to run and is seldom as polished, and users hate that. I rarely, if ever, recommend open-source anything for end-user use. Zoom did well because it had the least hassle of any solution, hands-down. I'm not saying it's impossible to subscribe to a hosted open-source service that's as good, but it doesn't exist yet.
  - tomcooks 7y ago
    https://meet.jit.si/roomname123 https://meet.jit.si/roomname123 where's the hassle? or the lack of shine? it works better than any other proprietary service
twomoretime 7y ago
I doubt non-technical users are savvy enough to find out about this problem and they probably won't remember to blame you for something clearly beyond your control. I know it's the kind of thing that can randomly keep a person up at night, but I think you can probably safely forget about this awkwardness and move on.
- cutemonster 7y ago
  Especially since so many tech people were taken by surprise by this -- thousands of upvotes for all Zoom topics together now
- stevenicr 7y ago
  Thing is - this story is all over the mainstream news. It's got multiple stories on the yahoo front page, it's reported via multiple sources in my fbook feed, but also with our regular tv news station. People are seeing this about zoom that have never seen zoom. People that I suggested use zoom are going to notice the word even if they would normally scroll past some gomeeting story.
  - hunter2_ 7y ago
    If they read tech news this week, but not if they happen to skip it until next week.
    - stevenicr 7y ago
      It's not just people reading tech news. People in Tennessee watching regular news on free over the air antenna (non-cable news) -> https://www.wsmv.com/news/security-experts-warn-about-zoom-hackers/article_fe0dff3c-7466-11ea-9753-2b7cb3d0dbab.html https://www.wsmv.com/news/security-experts-warn-about-zoom-h... any anyone who is within earshot of such 'non-tech news' is hearing how unsecure zoom is. Sure most of my clients are unlikely to read HN at all, and most are unlikely to read tech crunch regularly if at all - but I bet some have TC or something similar in their fbook feed. People watching TV news in Utah see: https://fox17.com/news/nation-world/zoom-call-with-utah-elementary-students-hacked-with-pornography https://fox17.com/news/nation-world/zoom-call-with-utah-elem... However people who don't even own computers are seeing this debacle. So, anyone I've advised to use zoom for privacy and security, citing the encryption and use by US gov - is going to have to wonder - how do these things happen on a secure, private, encrypted system - must not be what it was purported to be by that guy Steve. Then they are going to wonder what kind of damage could be done with the info that was 'securely' shared with the service.
che_shirecat 7y ago
https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/04/01/a-message-to-our-users https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/04/01/a-message-to-our-u...
Eldt 7y ago
Why would you push it so strongly after only giving it a cursory inspection?
- stevenicr 7y ago
  Because all the others I have been inspecting failed one of the big checkboxes almost immediately. Is it private? most no - skip. Is it easy to get started? the private private self hosted, not so much.. Zoom - private, encrypted, used by the us govt and easy to use.. So others trust and use, they have a firm business model - and a reputation not to lose. No others I found had this.

tomcooks 7y ago

Only recommend free software, this way you minimize reputation drama

criley2 7y ago
Generally speaking, free software UX is so bad that I would never recommend it to most people I talk to because 1) I don't want to train them on it 2) I don't want to support them on it 3) It isn't good enough for them to use without 1-2 So I pick the shiny costly commercial version that comes with training and support. I mean, I've done the recommend my parents and older coworkers use difficult OSS software thing in my past, and I honestly regret it. No one won.
mmm_grayons 7y ago
Sadly, my experience has been the opposite, because open-source stuff usually takes more work to run and is seldom as polished, and users hate that. I rarely, if ever, recommend open-source anything for end-user use. Zoom did well because it had the least hassle of any solution, hands-down. I'm not saying it's impossible to subscribe to a hosted open-source service that's as good, but it doesn't exist yet.
- tomcooks 7y ago
  https://meet.jit.si/roomname123 https://meet.jit.si/roomname123 where's the hassle? or the lack of shine? it works better than any other proprietary service

twomoretime 7y ago

I doubt non-technical users are savvy enough to find out about this problem and they probably won't remember to blame you for something clearly beyond your control. I know it's the kind of thing that can randomly keep a person up at night, but I think you can probably safely forget about this awkwardness and move on.

cutemonster 7y ago
Especially since so many tech people were taken by surprise by this -- thousands of upvotes for all Zoom topics together now
stevenicr 7y ago
Thing is - this story is all over the mainstream news. It's got multiple stories on the yahoo front page, it's reported via multiple sources in my fbook feed, but also with our regular tv news station. People are seeing this about zoom that have never seen zoom. People that I suggested use zoom are going to notice the word even if they would normally scroll past some gomeeting story.
- hunter2_ 7y ago
  If they read tech news this week, but not if they happen to skip it until next week.
  - stevenicr 7y ago
    It's not just people reading tech news. People in Tennessee watching regular news on free over the air antenna (non-cable news) -> https://www.wsmv.com/news/security-experts-warn-about-zoom-hackers/article_fe0dff3c-7466-11ea-9753-2b7cb3d0dbab.html https://www.wsmv.com/news/security-experts-warn-about-zoom-h... any anyone who is within earshot of such 'non-tech news' is hearing how unsecure zoom is. Sure most of my clients are unlikely to read HN at all, and most are unlikely to read tech crunch regularly if at all - but I bet some have TC or something similar in their fbook feed. People watching TV news in Utah see: https://fox17.com/news/nation-world/zoom-call-with-utah-elementary-students-hacked-with-pornography https://fox17.com/news/nation-world/zoom-call-with-utah-elem... However people who don't even own computers are seeing this debacle. So, anyone I've advised to use zoom for privacy and security, citing the encryption and use by US gov - is going to have to wonder - how do these things happen on a secure, private, encrypted system - must not be what it was purported to be by that guy Steve. Then they are going to wonder what kind of damage could be done with the info that was 'securely' shared with the service.

che_shirecat 7y ago

https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/04/01/a-message-to-our-users https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/04/01/a-message-to-our-u...

Eldt 7y ago

Why would you push it so strongly after only giving it a cursory inspection?

stevenicr 7y ago
Because all the others I have been inspecting failed one of the big checkboxes almost immediately. Is it private? most no - skip. Is it easy to get started? the private private self hosted, not so much.. Zoom - private, encrypted, used by the us govt and easy to use.. So others trust and use, they have a firm business model - and a reputation not to lose. No others I found had this.