Zoom Executive Charged With Suppressing Calls
Department of Justice (via Hacker News):
According to the complaint, Jin served as Company-1’s primary liaison with PRC law enforcement and intelligence services. In that capacity, he regularly responded to requests from the PRC government for information and to terminate video meetings hosted on Company-1’s video communications platform. Part of Jin’s duties included providing information to the PRC government about Company-1’s users and meetings, and in some cases he provided information – such as Internet Protocol addresses, names and email addresses – of users located outside of the PRC. Jin was also responsible for proactively monitoring Company-1’s video communications platform for what the PRC government considers to be “illegal” meetings to discuss political and religious subjects unacceptable to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the PRC government.
As alleged in the complaint, between January 2019 to the present, Jin and others conspired to use Company-1’s systems in the United States to censor the political and religious speech of individuals located in the United States and around the world at the direction and under the control of officials of the PRC government. Among other actions taken at the direction of the PRC government, Jin and others terminated at least four video meetings hosted on Company-1’s networks commemorating the thirty-first anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, most of which were organized and attended by U.S.-based participants, such as dissidents who had participated in and survived the 1989 protests.
How in the world can Zoom ever claim that calls are private and encrypted when they’ve clearly demonstrated the ability to monitor them, and abused that in patently offensive ways?
Just about everyone I know continues to use Zoom because it’s easy and works well.
Previously:
Apple's App of The Year folks. And it isn't like this is anything new or surprising. Zoom has a long history of security and privacy violations, including getting busted bypassing macOS security earlier this year to do God knows what.
Apple continuing to sell access to each and every Mac, iPhone and iPad user to Google to exploit is one reason I don't take anything Apple says about security or privacy seriously. Promoting a seedy app like Zoom and making it App of The Year is another.