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A comment on Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover.

Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by _-___________-_ on Friday April 03, 2020 @07:31AM (#22768120)
Maybe I've been sensitised by all the security flaws, privacy leaks and outright lies on Zoom's part, but I'm starting to really notice how much a lot of public figures are pushing Zoom.

Does anyone else find it really weird? Late-night TV hosts, I can understand - maybe they just get paid for it, or have Zoom shares. But for example UK government leaders repeatedly mentioning it by name, e.g. Matt Hancock saying that despite being unwell, Boris Johnson is still having "Zoom videoconferences", or saying Johnson addressed his "Zoom cabinet", just feels... weird.

Edited to add: thinking about it more, I remember "FaceTime" being used pretty similarly when it was new. So I guess all the bad news is just sensitising me.

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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by viraptor on Friday April 03, 2020 @07:43AM (#22768182)
Zoom is popular. Enough that it's both the default for many people and the tech that gets brought up in discussions. My dance school uses zoom. My work uses zoom. Online courses use zoom. Maybe it's more noticeable when famous people mention it, but really - it's a default now. Even if there was some shady push for it, it's also organically massively popular.
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by fock on Friday April 03, 2020 @08:36AM (#22768538)
trying to download the (self-installing) app twice _every_ time, whilst you're (actively) trying to join a meeting in your browser is the kind of organic popularity the yahoo toolbar had...
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by chatmasta on Friday April 03, 2020 @08:52AM (#22768679)
Most people install the app and leave it installed.
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by fock on Friday April 03, 2020 @09:04AM (#22768753)
you don't say. That way (and autostarting and nagging) you easily get a lot of popularity compared to a web-service (with most people being unaware of bookmarking features in their browser). That was the operating principle of a lot of crappy ad/malware companies back then this was still considered an ethical businessmodel. Seems we are seeing time repeat itself.
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by MobileVet on Friday April 03, 2020 @07:50AM (#22768235)
Zoom is now ‘Kleenex’ or ‘Coke’ for video conferencing. Skype was the same when it came out... but they had far less competition at the time.

This is a huge win for Zoom on a marketing front.

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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by kerng on Friday April 03, 2020 @12:29PM (#22770948)
Yep, showing up to uninvited random meetings by guessing IDs is now called Zoombombing apparently
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by complex1314 on Friday April 03, 2020 @08:00AM (#22768299)
Maybe they tried Skype first, which works horrible (tried twice, never managed connect all the participants at the same time), and finally relief over something that actually works. I have used Zoom successfully with 70 participants, and then breakout groups. The only alternative I can see that recently came to my attention is Jitsi Meet (https://jitsi.org/), which I will try next time I have the opportunity. But seems like it has at least one of the same weaknesses as zoom, with no end to end encryption (https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/7syt0s/jitsi_meet_...)
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by folmar on Friday April 03, 2020 @12:38PM (#22771090)
You can also try BigBlueButton (https://bigbluebutton.org). Open source, and a lot of nice things done better than the usual online meeting standards (e.g. included whiteboard and slides are real slides and watchers have a lot of flexibility in watching them).
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by 1over137 on Friday April 03, 2020 @09:51AM (#22769103)
But Jitsi is open source and you can self-host it. Then there's no third party in a hostile country controlling anything.
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by _-___________-_ on Friday April 03, 2020 @08:19AM (#22768417)
As far as I can find out, FaceTime is currently the only solution for "just works" (in the sense that your grandma could use it) videoconferencing that is e2e encrypted.
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by notechback on Friday April 03, 2020 @08:26AM (#22768474)
But it only works if everyone has Apple devices, so it absolutely does not "just work" if even one family member doesn't have it.

Most video chat apps are straightforward once set up on the phone.

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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by _-___________-_ on Friday April 03, 2020 @08:35AM (#22768537)
Are you aware of other video chat apps that support e2e-encrypted multi-party videoconference?
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by zeveb on Friday April 03, 2020 @09:35AM (#22768977)
If there are no cross-platform apps which support e2e-encrypted multi-party videoconferences, then there simply is currently no solution at all for 'just works' secure videoconferencing, because part of just working is not requiring users to switch to a platform they otherwise would not.
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by tzm on Friday April 03, 2020 @07:49AM (#22768219)
It's becoming a verb (vs brand) which reflects rising popularity and use.
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by kossTKR on Friday April 03, 2020 @07:55AM (#22768261)
It is curious, and post revelations in the recent decade nothing is too weird to suspect - but don't underestimate the immense social value of jumping on the technological bandwagon and the free "hip" PR that it produces in media. And when more people do it, more people do it, i.e the bandwagon effect.

People then look at the articles written in the media and say "hey i use that app too, cool, we are part of the same tribe".

Showing of knowledge of the tech-zeitgeist is an easy way for a politician or anyone for that matter to appear being both with the times", "tech-savvy" and just the same as regular folk.

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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by mrich on Friday April 03, 2020 @08:36AM (#22768541)
Isn't it amazing how video conferencing gets reinvented time and time again?
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by bryanrasmussen on Friday April 03, 2020 @07:45AM (#22768189)
well another thing is that zoom is a great name, on a marketing level.

It implies speed, and thus implies power.

Since you zoom in on things to see them better it implies attention to detail.

The productivity of the prime minister is in no way hampered, people, he Zooms!

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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by dvfjsdhgfv on Friday April 03, 2020 @07:52AM (#22768244)
> It implies speed

on far too many lenses I've owned it's simply not true

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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by bryanrasmussen on Friday April 03, 2020 @08:18AM (#22768413)
https://cdn3.vectorstock.com/i/1000x1000/55/37/comic-book-zo...
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by knolax on Friday April 03, 2020 @10:06AM (#22769237)
Software by an American Company[0] founded by a man who's been here since the 90s[1] is now "Chinese Tech"? Is everything from Paul Graham "British Tech"? Are Apple Products now "Chinese Tech" because of their keyservers in China[2]?

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoom_Video_Communications

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Yuan

[2] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-apple-icloud-insigh...

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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by throw445673 on Friday April 03, 2020 @12:23PM (#22770859)
I find it shocking that your comment is being downvoted.

If Zoom is “Chinese tech” because of the CEO’s ethnicity, then I suppose NVIDIA and AMD are now “Chinese tech.”

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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by fangorn on Friday April 03, 2020 @12:45PM (#22771211)
I never said anything about ethnicity. Maybe "tech with critical security related software components developed and hosted in China, by Chinese nationals, thus clearly subject to draconian Chinese laws and potentially exposed to Chinese government and military influence" would be more precise. That's as close to "Chinese tech" though, as makes no difference.

I would expect a more stringent approach to something used by a government to actually conduct "governing", and in the time of crisis at that!

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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by knolax on Friday April 03, 2020 @02:02PM (#22772258)
https://nvidia.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/NVIDIAExternalCareerSit...

https://jobs.amd.com/search/?createNewAlert=false&q=&locatio...

The Nvidia WeWork link might not work but you can look for job postings and filter for China yourself.

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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by jaywalk on Friday April 03, 2020 @10:40AM (#22769596)
Zoom also has over 700 employees in China.
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by knolax on Friday April 03, 2020 @10:51AM (#22769744)
So does Apple.
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by jaywalk on Friday April 03, 2020 @10:55AM (#22769791)
At Apple Stores. Not developing their software.
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Re:Zoom’s encryption has links to China, researchers discover by knolax on Friday April 03, 2020 @01:47PM (#22772093)
https://jobs.apple.com/en-us/search?location=china-CHNC&team...

Look for yourself how many postings they have for software and hardware positions in China.

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