Zoom announces new updates with enhanced privacy and security features

Viral video-conferencing service Zoom announced new security measures today that will be part of the upcoming Zoom 5.0 platform, as part of its 90-day tackle privacy concerns, announced by CEO Eric S. Yuan earlier. The company has come under first, with various companies and world governments, including the Indian government, issuing advice against using the service.

Among the measure is a new AES 256-bit GCM encryption standard, which Zoom will now implement on its platform. This is a common strong and common encryption standard used by enterprise communications services. It’s also the go to encryption standard for mobile banking applications, payments apps and more. It’s worth noting that the company first added these standards in its April 19th update.

Further, the service will now allow IT admins to determine how complex the passwords on the service need to be. Zoom also enabled passwords by default. Additionally, Zoom will allow its enterprise customers to choose which of its data centers will be handling the traffic for a meeting. This has presumably been done since some companies raised concerns around the fact that their meetings were being routed through servers in China.

On the user experience front, the company has added a security icon to the service that gives users access to all of its security features. The icon will show up on the menu bar during a video call on the host’s interface. It will also allow hosts to report users to the company and disable the feature that allowed participants to rename themselves on a call. Zoom’s waiting room feature is also going to be a default option now, which puts people in a virtual waiting room before they are admitted into a meeting by the host(s). This feature is useful for public meetings, to keep unwanted persons from Zoombombing.

The boost in demand for video conferencing tools due to the covid-19 pandemic drove Zoom’s share values up in a matter of weeks. At the same time, the company has come under scrutiny for various privacy concerns and for putting its users at risk. Even the Indian government recently issued an advisory, asking government officials to not use Zoom for official purposes and warning companies and individuals about the privacy concerns around the service.

Zoom CEO, Eric S. Yuan had earlier apologized publicly for these lapses, saying that the company never expected its user base to grow overnight the way it did. Yuan also announced a 90-day feature freeze for the app, saying it would focus all of its engineering efforts into security and privacy concerns.