Video conferencing app Zoom has issued an apology for safety and privacy issues encountered by users and promised to address them.
Zoom chief executive Eric Yuan issued an apology via a blog post for "falling short" on security issues and promised to address the concerns. The company will pause the development of any new features to concentrate on these issues.
According to Yuan, the use of the video conferencing app increased at a rate they did not expect prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
Currently, Zoom is being used by millions of people for work and leisure, as many countries implemented lockdowns to prevent the virus from spreading further.
Yuan mentioned: "As of the end of December last year, the maximum number of daily meeting participants, both free and paid, was approximately 10 million. In March this year, we reached more than 200 million."
The Zoom boss admitted that despite "working around the clock" to support the influx of new users, the service had "fallen short of the community's - and our own - privacy and security expectations".
He wrote: "For that, I am deeply sorry. We did not design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying, and socializing from home."
Yuan added: "We now have a much broader set of users who are utilizing our product in a myriad of unexpected ways presenting us with challenges we did not anticipate when the platform was conceived."
Several users have aired various privacy issues, including sending user data to Facebook, wrongly claiming the app had end-to-end encryption, and allowing meeting hosts to track attendees.
Patrick Wardle, a former National Security Agency (NSA) identified a series of issues, including a flaw which left Mac users vulnerable to having webcams and microphones hijacked.
Meanwhile, security consultant Graham Cluley said: "It risked losing a large amount of goodwill it had received because of revelations about its less-than-perfect attitude towards security and privacy."
However, Cluley pointed out that the fact the company was addressing some of the "alarming vulnerabilities" and had recognized the need to focus on security rather than "adding bells and whistles" was good news.
"Let's hope that the company's culture will change from its previous 'fast and loose' attitude when it comes to such concerns," he added.
Zoombombing at a synagogue service
An online synagogue service has become a victim of a racist “Zoombombing”, in which racist accounts posted anti-Semitic abuse to congregants. Zoombombing refers to the activity of uninvited guests entering Zoom meetings.
A BBC employee who attended the meeting at a synagogue in London explained: “There were about 205 of us logged on – including lots of families with little kids – and suddenly the numbers went up to 243.”
She said the group chat on the right-hand side of the screen was instantly filled up with “vile abuse”. There appeared to be only one uninvited guest on the screen, indicating that the other accounts in the Zoombombing may have been generated automatically by that person.
“The rabbi didn’t realize what was going on until one of the congregants texted him. By then lots of people had taken their children offline. It was terrifying at what is a really terrifying time anyway,” the BBC employee added.
