Zoom to Offer End-to-End Encryption to Both Free and Paying Users

A couple of months back, popular video conferencing app Zoom’s CEO Eric Yuan apologized for all the security lapses suffered by the service while promising fixes for those flaws. Today, the company has announced that it has decided to offer end-to-end encryption (E2EE) as an advanced add-on feature for all free and paid users.

“We are also pleased to share that we have identified a path forward that balances the legitimate right of all users to privacy and the safety of users on our platform,” noted the company as it released an updated E2EE design on GitHub. 

According to Zoom, Free/Basic users seeking access to E2EE will need to participate in a one-time process that will prompt the user for additional pieces of information, such as verifying a phone number via a text message.

The company has shared the following points regarding its plans to enable E2EE for all Zoom users worldwide.

• We plan to begin early beta of the E2EE feature in July 2020. 
• All Zoom users will continue to use AES 256 GCM transport encryption as the default encryption, one of the strongest encryption standards in use today.
• E2EE will be an optional feature as it limits some meeting functionality, such as the ability to include traditional PSTN phone lines or SIP/H.323 hardware conference room systems. Hosts will toggle E2EE on or off on a per-meeting basis. 
• Account administrators can enable and disable E2EE at the account and group level. 

You can learn more about Zoom’s updated E2EE design at this link.