Zoom, a China-based teleconferencing app, has quickly become one of the most popular applications used by employees trying to be productive during this global lockdown. And while its functionality is certainly appreciated, a lot of users have also complained about its weak security measures. "Zoom-bombing" is one of the most common examples of a security breach. This is when strangers enter other people's video calls without any invitation. To stop these incidents, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has a tip for you.
Got a stranger in your Zoom call? Here's what you need to do!
For the past weeks, complaints about the weak security measures of Zoom were trending online. There were reports from users around the world of receiving unsollicited pornographic content, racists remarks, and other sensitive information from unkown trolls joing the private call.
Aside from that, New York's attorney general, Letitia James, recently wrote to the company asking them to step-up their security measures to accommodate the need of most people during the lockdown, and to address the important issue of the platform selling accounts to third parties such as Facebook.
"We take privacy very seriously and have a privacy policy, and our intention is never to sell any customer data," Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said during a video interview. "After meetings are over, we do not check anything."
As further explained by Yuan, Zoom-bombing, or Zoom trolls, is no longer new to their system. Complaints about these unwanted strangers joining other people's video calls are one of the most common issues on the platform. However, Yuan reiterated that their app is still safe to use despite these incidents.
When it comes to stopping these zoom trolls from entering your video calls, Yuan shared a tip for all Zoom users.
"There are things we can do every day to protect ourselves while using the platform," he said. "You need to understand the secure feature of about how to use Zoom."
How to set your Zoom call in a private mode
Having a link to your Zoom calls can be easy to acquire for most Zoom trolls. A quick search on the internet for links, and people can easily get into your meetings if they wanted to. However, here's something you can do to stop this from happening.
Create a password for each call. Once you set a password, only users who are able to key-in the password will be allowed to join the call.
Aside from that, users can also establish a waiting room on each call in order to keep track of people who will be joining. This way, Zoom users can check whether all of them are part of their team or if there are strangers looking create a disturbance.
