Perhaps a better question to ask would be "why is any process allowed to do this by default in 2021?"
This is not the case on Qubes OS, which I use. If you care about security, can't recommend it enough.
Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?
271–277 of 277 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
After Pegasus, I'm not sure it's a secure solution.
Apples to oranges. Public companies aren’t going to use exploits to break the sandbox. Zoom on desktop installs all sorts of daemons that I don’t want; on iOS it can’t.
> Public companies aren’t going to use exploits to break the sandbox.
Exploits tend to leak...
Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
Be careful with this. In some orgs you can get a bit of a bad reputation for being technically incompetent if you can't get zoom to run. Zoom is very invasive / flexible - so it's actually somewhat hard to have it NOT work. People will suggest you try connecting on your phone or dialing in if you really can't figure it out (note that it has a fallback to browser option if you get stuck trying to start meeting as well…
> I know of at least one job interview where they claimed they couldn't get zoom to run / couldn't connect - and that was basically decisive. I used to interview candidates via Zoom. There were quite a few who couldn't figure it out. I gave 2nd chances interviews, mostly for optics for upper management. (And because sometimes hardware breaks at the last minute.) The candidates always failed the retry interview. At le…
Yeah - the problem is now zoom is a skill you basically need - if you can't use a computer / zoom, it can be hard to make the remote work thing work.
It's also not that difficult to click in and to the test audio / test video features. I still do that (sometimes just to check a virtual background etc).
So yeah, if you are going to always be saying it's too hard or you can't get into zoom (ie, for "security" reasons) that may be a dealbreaker.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand why anyone who is forced to use it doesn't use it in a browser (I have a separate Firefox container for that, same for Teams).
Does teams work for your in a FF container? For me it always ends up in a redirect loop :( but my work uses MCAS for external computers so that may have to do with it. It's a proxy service from MS that adds some supposed security to their services and makes them even slower.
Teams seems to work normally in a container for me but I realized even though I have it open all day... I just use chat, not video/audio calls. I tried to call someone yesterday and it turned out Microsoft says they don't support FF and I have to use Edge or Chrome (or the app, preferably, of course). This is not a problem with the container itself, though.
Interestingly enough, when I asked my colleague call me, they didn't receive any feedback message - it was as if I was not responding to their call. Another lame thing on the part of MS as it could introduce (potentially never verbalized) problems into communication.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure about Teams, but Google Meet allow you to share a specific browser tab, I don't know how to implement it without reading all the opened tabs.
Teams lets you share an application window or your display(s).
and "Window sharing isn't available for Linux users."
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/share-content-in-...
Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure. But that's a very distinct task vs. the implication that Zoom is somehow making ad revenue off of Linux process names. The latter strikes me as not very likely because there's no money in it; the former is well outside of anything I feel qualified to opine on.
You'd be surprised about how weird things can get sometimes. Here is a company that does censorship-resistant P2P networking...and also....Nuclear Material Detection? Obviously very closely related things? https://www.clostra.com/newnode-mesh-network https://www.clostra.com/nuclear-detection-snm
A company in my hometown makes parts for defense aerospace, the oil industry, private military contractors, and hyperscale data centers.
Are they spying on your Azure servers? Unlikely, they make hose reels and related round metal things.
Sometimes little (or big) companies like that get involved in weird lines of business because they buy other companies for the contracts.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
> is the quality actually better, or is it post-processing tricks to make it seem better Serious question - if the experience is the same, why does this distinction matter?
Usually postprocessing requires significant computing power. This is something that might matter for people maximizing battery usage. But another person in the same thread says in the case of Zoom it's the opposite - the web app seems more CPU-intensive.
That's a helpful perspective that I hadn't considered, thank you!