Zoom shares your information with Facebook, lawsuit says

boing
#32

That’s nice if you have the bandwidth, Jitsi’s compression (or lack thereof) might hurt you if you’re in a bandwidth-limited VPN or have users on mobile connections.

I don’t think so, especially since Zoom has a history of ridiculous privacy and security issues so it’s perfectly fine to call them out.

Sure, there’s bonus points for offering an alternative, but people have a browser and are able to do some research.

And we can assume that any alternative that has no known history of privacy breaches is better than Zoom.

Why is that of any relevance?

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#33

So, you are going straight to insults? Really?

It’s relevant for the same reason there is a “We heart the Free Ice Cream” thread here at BoingBoing. BoingBoing uses an array trackers, including Facebook, for metrics, advertising and affiliate links.

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Giving up some privacy has become the currency by which “free” web services can survive. It is a trade off, and it is fair for some to say that privacy is too valuable to give up in exchange for these services, but it is also understandable for the services to say “that’s how we get paid, so take it or leave it”, though I want privacy regulated to curb the largest abuses. I’m not seeing sending info to FB as necessarily abusive, depending on what info is sent.

Anyway, if you are using Zoom on a mac you can use Little Snitch to prevent your mac from connecting to FB servers. I’m sure there are a number of ways to do that on PCs as well.

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#34

Thank you for that. In fact, it answered my specific question:

If you must use Zoom or simply want to use it, I highly recommend using it on your iPad and iPhone only.1 The iOS version is sandboxed and reviewed by the App Store. The Mac version of Zoom is not available through the App Store, which makes me trust it not a bit.

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#35

That article seems to concentrate mainly on how Zoom plays with the iStuff; has anyone to our knowledge done an analysis of how Zoom does with PCs? Now I have to decide if I want to go forward with Saturday’s event over Zoom :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: :rage:

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#37

So Zoom does not transfer data to facebook for paid users?

#39

A fair point. At the moment it supposedly has had the code removed for all users, but in general there is a good conversation to have about that.

Regular free gmail vs. paid GSuite email is a good example. The paid service doesn’t read your email to serve up ads, a feature which eventually made its way to the free service but originally was a dividing line between free and paid.

Also, BB briefly experimented with making BB free or paid, where free required you to whitelist ad trackers, or paid, allowing you to keep the ad trackers black listed (but be tracked by Google to charge you per page viewed). So giving up privacy vs paid with no or less tracking is a real thing, but as you pointed out, paid doesn’t always mean better privacy.

1 Like
#45

OK, so I don’t really have much choice but to use Zoom with those people who are already invested in it. I would like people’s input, though, if they wanted to share personal information via video chat, that they didn’t want going anyplace at all. Does anyone offer PGP encryption for video chat? Or is that too resource-intensive?

Not to get into too much detail, but someone whose privacy I care about, wants to use a video streaming service for cybersex. I want to steer them toward something that doesn’t require a computer science degree to configure, that they won’t have to worry too much about ending up in some stranger’s fap folder.

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#46

You honestly expect me to tell you, a random stranger, what (if anything) I’m afraid of Facebook learning about me, when I already don’t trust Facebook?

What planet do you come from?

I didnt insult you then- you don’t seem to care about or understand the concept or value of privacy in the digital age

My business is my own. I don’t trade my privacy for convenience when I have a choice in the matter

#47

This may help others that share my concerns, looking for a free, non-Facebook connected video conferencing solution. Bonus points- it seamlessly integrates with Slack

Its open source, and free. Seems like the best alternative to Zoom or any other number of options at this point- and as far as I can tell, not connected to Facebook, Microsoft, or Apple in any way.

Edit- just saw someone mention it above

1 Like
#48

Signal supports video conferencing, and it’s cross-platform (Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, and Linux). However, I’ve never had occasion to try it, so I can’t vouch for its performance vs. Zoom.

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#49

I can attest that Signal is indeed excellent as a secure texting app- and it can indeed make encrypted video calls.

But for that to work, the other person has to have it too, and I don’t think it yet supports multiple simultaneous video calls merged, which is what Zoom and others that do videoconferencing do. God I wish it could

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#50

So - been using zoom on pc laptop but have not download or installed it - it suggests if the meeting doesn’t connect to download/install but I just refresh the page till it works. Expect some data gets shared but have Facebook container and something else(?) to minimize the data shared. Maybe someone that knows more could opine on my strategy?

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#51

Not to diminish your concerns but I’ve not heard of as much issue with interception of video streams as opposed to saved videos being copied and posted by the intended recipient or by someone who has hacked the recipient’s computer/phone or their cloud back up. The ability to prevent saving is as much a security issue as encryption (though nothing prevents the analog hole, where someone just cams the screen). Just something to consider in addition to encryption.

#52

This is literally a thread about ice cream :confused:

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#53

The reference to ice cream in the “We heart the Free Ice Cream” thread’s OP links to a General Moderation Thread post about a banned user not appreciating all the free flavors of ice cream offered on BoingBoing - a trope here on the BBS that is a reference to BoingBoing and the BBS being free. So the thread is, I would say, titled based on the trope, and a bit of a pun that incorporates a meta reference to the forum itself, though the author might disagree.

#54

I was pretty sure 252 posts about ice cream featuring hundreds of pictures of ice cream is about ice cream, but maybe it’s a really subtle in-house in-joke and the 252 posts about ice cream featuring hundreds of pictures of ice cream aren’t about ice cream after all.
That’s pretty meta.

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#55

Not “really subtle” when the OP specifically links to its namesake.

#56

Did you miss the bit up above, about Zoom leaving always-on servers on people’s systems (at least Macs) that could be (and WERE) used by malefactors, even after supposed uninstallation of the application? Supposedly they’ve removed the hidden web server now, but what the actual fuck was it there for, in the first place, ESPECIALLY since it turned out to have vulnerabilities that allow remote code execution? Who thinks installing such a thing secretly is OK, much less leaving it after it’s supposed to be gone?

So…yeah. I’d call that “interception” of the video stream, although it’s really taking direct control of one end of it. And there’s more to it, as well.

And so on.

THIS IS NOT EVEN REMOTELY OK. You can stop the armwaving campaign; thanks.

5 Likes
#57

The OP is about the sharing of information with FB, not the issues you brought up. Bugs, vulnerabilities and poor default privacy controls are different issues I’d be happy to talk about on their own merits - er, or lack of merit.

#60

Be cool.

11 Likes