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> In 2020 a rash of anti-zoom propaganda that I'm almost certain was driven by Microsoft led to a company-wide prohibition on using anything other than Teams "f

> In 2020 a rash of anti-zoom propaganda that I'm almost certain was driven by Microsoft led to a company-wide prohibition on using anything other than Teams "for security reasons" where i worked. It was not propaganda. There was no privacy protection. I work for a K-12 and there was literally no way to configure Zoom such that it wasn't a massive FERPA violation waiting to happen. There was originally no way to gatekeep entrants to a virtual Zoom classroom. It even earned it's own term: Zoombombing [0]. It was completely unsuitable for use. It's like it was designed for the Internet of the 1990s. The only way we figure that so many districts were using it was: 1. It was free when basically nothing else was. 2. There was no time to evaluate alternatives when the pandemic started. 3. They were hoping nobody was looking too closely. 4. They didn't properly evaluate Zoom or they just didn't tell anyone how Zoom didn't ensure privacy. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoombombing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoombombing

tinus_hn 5y ago
It was the only accessible solution that supports a large number of participants and features easy enough installation. Teams was far more limited than Zoom and might still be.
- aksss 5y ago
  Yeah, people at start of pandemic needed something easy and quick. Many of those people were relatively new to VC as an everyday part of the toolset. Zoom was focused on engaging people over VC quickly and easily, whereas Teams was/is like a Swiss army knife buried in a deep toolbox that you can only access through a subscription plan to the toolbox, so I imagine for non-tech teachers and whatnot, Zoom's approachability alone was a god-send. Also Teams/SfB, despite years and years of their users complaining about the limit to concurrent video feeds, never progressed past about four until Zoom came on the scene. They didn't just exceed Teams by a few, but like an order of magnitude. I use Teams every day but thank God for Zoom driving improvement. Just underscores the value of market competition.

tinus_hn 5y ago

It was the only accessible solution that supports a large number of participants and features easy enough installation. Teams was far more limited than Zoom and might still be.

aksss 5y ago
Yeah, people at start of pandemic needed something easy and quick. Many of those people were relatively new to VC as an everyday part of the toolset. Zoom was focused on engaging people over VC quickly and easily, whereas Teams was/is like a Swiss army knife buried in a deep toolbox that you can only access through a subscription plan to the toolbox, so I imagine for non-tech teachers and whatnot, Zoom's approachability alone was a god-send. Also Teams/SfB, despite years and years of their users complaining about the limit to concurrent video feeds, never progressed past about four until Zoom came on the scene. They didn't just exceed Teams by a few, but like an order of magnitude. I use Teams every day but thank God for Zoom driving improvement. Just underscores the value of market competition.