{"id":40999,"date":"2020-06-17T10:33:46","date_gmt":"2020-06-17T10:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/?guid=480a4631ead56a9ac8a14eddc3d852c5"},"modified":"2020-06-17T10:33:46","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T10:33:46","slug":"privacy-advocates-urge-zoom-to-encrypt-free-video-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/privacy-advocates-urge-zoom-to-encrypt-free-video-calls\/","title":{"rendered":"Privacy advocates urge Zoom to encrypt free video calls"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n Sabina Weston<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
17 Jun, 2020<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Mozilla and the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) have published an\u00a0open letter<\/a>\u00a0to Zoom that urges\u00a0it to make end-to-end encryption available for all users.<\/p>\n

The letter, addressed to Zoom CEO Eric Yuan, criticises the company’s decision to offer\u00a0end-to-end encryption<\/a>\u00a0only to paying users.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It has been signed by 19,000 internet users and backed by tech organisations and advocacy groups including Fight for the Future and MPower Change.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nEarlier this month, the video conferencing platform\u00a0announced plans to roll out stronger encryption<\/a>\u00a0for businesses and institutions that pay for its service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zoom\u2019s security consultant Alex Stamos suggested\u00a0that\u00a0stronger security measures may\u00a0also be rolled out for non-profit organisations or users in need of an extra layer of protection, such as political dissidents, but added that \u201cthe current plan is paid customers plus enterprise accounts where the company knows who they are\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The decision has garnered criticism from many tech companies and organisations, including Mozilla and the EFF. In the open letter to Yuan, they argued that “best-in-class security should not be something that only the wealthy or businesses can afford”.<\/p>\n

“Around the world, end-to-end encryption is already an important tool for journalists and activists that are living under repressive regimes and fighting censorship,”\u00a0wrote Mozilla\u2019s Advocacy and Engagement VP Ashley Boyd and EFF’s associate director of Research Gennie Gebhart.<\/p>\n

Boyd and Gebhert also criticised Zoom\u2019s recent decision to\u00a0suspend three user accounts at the request of the Chinese government<\/a>\u00a0for hosting meetings to commemorate the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.<\/p>\n

\u201cTools like Zoom can be critical to help protesters organize and communicate their message widely,\u201d they wrote. \u201cActivists should be able to plan and conduct protest-related activities without fear that these meetings, and the information they include, may be subject to interception.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, recent actions from law enforcement \u2013 and a long history of\u00a0discriminatory policing<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 have legitimized such fears, making end-to-end encryption all the more critical.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter acknowledged Stamos\u2019s argument that full encryption for every meeting would leave Zoom\u2019s trust and safety team unable to tackle child sexual abuse material (CSAM), but added that \u201crestricting end-to-end encryption to paid accounts is not the right solution\u201d.<\/p>\n

Organisations such as Fight for the Future, MPower Change, Daily Kos, Kairos, Media Alliance\u00a0and Jewish Voice for Peace have also launched\u00a0a petition<\/a>\u00a0targeted at the video conferencing platform, arguing that \u201cpeople who can\u2019t afford Zoom\u2019s services are left vulnerable to cyber-criminals, stalkers, and hackers\u201d. It has been co-signed by 42,000 internet users.<\/p>\n

Lau Barrios, campaign manager at MPower Change, said that \u201cend-to-end encryption has always been a racial justice issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt most directly protects Black, brown, Muslim and poor communities from the disproportionate risk of surveillance, policing, and criminalization,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Zoom has already misled the public once on whether or not they use end-to-end encryption. Openly defending their refusal to provide it to those not wealthy enough to pay to protect themselves and their communities is unconscionable. And it\u2019s a direct refusal to protect activists and organizers from surveillance in this moment.” <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sabina Weston<\/p>\n

17 Jun, 2020 <\/p>\n

Mozilla and the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) have published an\u00a0open letter\u00a0to Zoom that urges\u00a0it to make end-to-end encryption available for all users.
\nThe letter, addressed to Zoom CEO …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/627"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40999"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41005,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40999\/revisions\/41005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icloud.pe\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}