The Infamously Famous story of Covid – 19: Zoom Inc.

Picture source: FreePik || Designed: A.J.F.

Blog written by: Kartik Nair

Note: The views expressed by the author are strictly personal.

It doesn’t really matter if you are a person working in an office or a student who’s probably in his/her first academic year; a CEO or an executive; a teacher or a student, a senior or a junior, in fact it really doesn’t matter which subject you are thinking of at the present – Language, computer sciences, mathematics, quantum physics, marketing, operations, profit, data analysis or for that matter where you are at the present. Oh, I forgot social gatherings too. Wait, I might just be mistaken. One thing I’m sure all of you might’ve just realized, this sense of equal comparison that I just made is all thanks to a reduction of global energy, time and space is due to the ongoing Covid – 19 pandemic.

Pandemic/panˈdɛmɪk – (adj.) (of a disease) prevalent over a whole country or the world.

Although there have been lots of debates regarding the ongoing pandemic, widespread problems, blames, deaths; one thing is clear. We, as humans, have not refused to give up. To bow down to the virus. To surrender our social and economic activities. Although we are together with each other, in all senses but one; it is a matter of great environmental pride to this planet that both abiotic and biotic species are being protected and sort of, balanced. There seems to be no desperate need for cubicles, blackboards, desks, benches, corporate infrastructure or external furniture – To conduct businesses, to hold classes or sessions, to conduct crucial/urgent meetings, make decisions of importance that probably might have an impact on a large group of people, etc. All thanks to the development of science and technology. All thanks to applications. All thanks to one name that has had its fair share of fame and shame, both in this year, 2020 – ‘Zoom’.

Founded by Eric Yuan in 2011 and headquartered at San Jose, California, Zoom video communications Inc. (Zoom) has become more of a household name, in almost all corners or edges or curves of spheres of the world than a mere tele-conferencing app. It is literally, figuratively, bringing people of all walks of life, across all walks of life together. Going by numbers, Zoom gained 2.22 Mn users by February 2020 – much more than it could amass totally in the previous year. Daily downloads of the app rose from 10 Mn in December 2019 to approximately 200 Mn in March 2020, and it is only increasing. It emerged as the new dominant player in the market surpassing the number of users of popular video conferencing apps such as Skype, Webex and Hangouts. To cite a few more numbers, as of today, Zoom is valued and has a market cap of $31.73 Bn, more than the combined values of Hilton, American Airlines and Expedia.

The big reason: The Covid – 19 pandemic, nationwide lockdowns, offices, educational institutions, workout centres, tuition classes and social spaces being closed down, a sense of social distancing being maintained and enforced among people of all classes. Hundreds of thousands of businesses and educational institutions, classes etc. made a transition from offline presence (in – class sessions) to online sessions; and well, nothing has been lost. Yes, the sense of personal touch or presence might just have gone off, but the transactions take place, the learnings take place, assignments and tasks take place; well, there is not much difference. The social part of these gatherings have reduced, the core component of presence has stayed. It has also been used for weddings, funerals and parties! See the trends below, a comparison between major video conferencing players to get an idea about usage comparison. The spike in users using the app is a sure shocker, isn’t it?

A user comparison between Zoom Video Conf App vs. Skype, Webex and Hangouts. (Data as on 19^th April, 2020)

Source: Google Trends

The pandemic might end shortly if adequate protection, care and mitigation processes are done; but the effects shall definitely be long lasting. One of the biggest effects or strategies adopted by various firms as witnessed in this lockdown, the ‘work – from – home’ pattern is there to stay. Many companies witnessed employees working at equal or more efficiency, lower operational costs and expenses, and additionally, better effects on the environment. Many believe that telecommuting or teleconferencing is here to stay, as the outbreak has prompted several companies, across various domains, sizes and geographies who were previously reluctant about remote work to make this process continued even after the pandemic is contained. According to a Gartner survey (of CFOs, released in April), 74% companies plan to permanently shift to more remote work after the crisis is over.

Now, this is a relief to a large section of working people, which might stand correct for all personal and professional reasons. But in an age of technological boom, can the demons be kept contained? Like a lot of other free and paid software and tools out there in the wide world of internet, this too has its own set of positives and negatives. Angels and demons have to co – exist in all worlds, don’t they? I find a similar case with this app. Zoom is definitely helping us close in on distances, but the question arises – Is it a bit too much?

Since gaining popularity, Zoom has been facing public and media scrutiny related to data vulnerability and security issues and poor privacy practices.

A Motherboard analysis, previously revealed that the Zoom iOS app sent analytics data to social networking sites, such as Facebook even if a user didn’t have an account on it. There was also a suit filed against the company, alleging that the app collected information of its users without giving them adequate notice or having obtained authorization. Motherboard even found out that whenever a user opened the app, the app shared details about the users’ devices, specifics which could related for targeted advertising. More importantly, Zoom’s privacy policy did not make the data transfer to Facebook clear.

To further add to its woes, the security researchers from City Lab at University of Toronto found that few Zoom calls were being routed via servers in China, along with conference and decryption keys used to secure those calls. Although Zoom is banned in China, it appeared to own three sub companies/brands and appeared to maintain close to 700 employees to maintain data infrastructure. In an age of information and data breach, the rapid rise of such video conferencing platforms, without proper vetting or gatekeeping does make it a potential target for black hats and hackers to obtain business, trade and personal secrets. Basically, this could be a hindrance to privacy.

According to Citizen Lab, “Companies and individuals might erroneously assume that because a company is publicly listed or is a major household name; that means the app is designed using security best practices. The assumption is false.” During normal ops, Zoom clients attempt to connect to a series of primary datacentres near a user’s region, if it fails due to network congestion or other issues, clients reach out to secondary datacentres off a list of several secondary datacentres as a potential backup bridge. A report also stated that Zoom ‘mistakenly’ allowed two of its Chinese data centres to accept calls as a backup in the event of a network congestion. A former NSA hacker also discovered that the security issue could allow bad actors to control users’ mics, webcams and gain control off devices. In cases where hacking is reported, there have been allegations of personal user data being sold at extremely cheap prices, in some cases even being given away for free.

Zoom may have caused too much damage as several MNCs, conglomerates and even governments banned the usage of the video conferencing app. Although it is used by hundreds of thousands across the globe for online classes, meetings or social calls, a problem of trust and loyalty might just have been created. This probably comes too late for the founder. Yuan stated, “We recognise that we have fallen short of the community’s and our own privacy and security expectations, for that I am deeply sorry.”

Some of the companies and agencies that have imposed the ban for all official purposes include Google, SpaceX, Siemens, Standard Chartered, etc. to name a few. Standard Chartered even warned its employees against using Alphabet Inc’s Google Hangouts platform. Also, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), NY City schools, the German Foreign Ministry, Australian Defence Forces and Taiwan Government joined the growing list of platforms to ban Zoom. The US intelligence officials also expressed their concerns over possible Chinese espionage.

Owing to the these problems which could possibly have large scale issues, Eric stated that the company was ‘freezing all new features immediately’ and that all engineering resources would be focused towards its “biggest trust, safety and security issues.” Therefore, in order to counter various accusations and security loopholes, Zoom has entered into a 90 – day phase to completely focus on the app. Certain features like complex passwords and random meetings IDs, waiting room features, etc. have been put in place, but does this ensure that all user data stays safe?

In India, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recently warned Zoom app users that the ‘video conferencing app is not safe for usage.’ A study conducted by India’s nodal cyber security agency, Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT- In) revealed several weaknesses and user vulnerability which risked leaking sensitive information to criminals and bad actors. The MHA issued a set of guidelines for users, for security purposes, to prevent unauthorised entry and unauthorised participants for getting access to conference rooms. Keeping in mind the need to have its own app, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTy) announced a challenge for innovators and software product start-ups to build India’s own video conferencing app, under the Digital India program. A winner prize of INR 1 Crore has also been announced in the three – stage contest. The app will then be deployed for use by the Central and state governments.

Will the Indian innovators live up to global standards to make an app to compete with these giants and to ward off threats against people with malicious intent? Only time will tell. Let’s just hope it’s not too delayed or that it comes before much damage.

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