How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’
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Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’
#2The whole torrent of grey area, just over the line and outright shady behavior at Zoom is a problem in itself even if all the separate instances in isolation aren't grounds to stop using them. Their responses to security issues and today's revelation of misleading marketing on E2E encryption make it clear they're not just making isolated mistakes. Shady is at the core of how they operate, this is an indication that Zoom has a company culture of accepting borderline behavior. Otherwise it wouldn't be so widespread.
As a customer this is a reason for me to stop using Zoom. Not in the last place because I'm quite sure we're only seeing the public tip of the iceberg of all the unacceptable things happening within Zoom.
Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’
#3I think this also shows how macOS has been training users to enter their password in random dialogs that have absolutely nothing that identifies them as being legit OS dialogs. The dialog that Zoom uses could very well be sending the credentials to a remote server, and the user would be none the wiser.
Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’
#4The whole torrent of grey area, just over the line and outright shady behavior at Zoom is a problem in itself even if all the separate instances in isolation aren't grounds to stop using them. Their responses to security issues and today's revelation of misleading marketing on E2E encryption make it clear they're not just making isolated mistakes. Shady is at the core of how they operate, this is an indication that Z…
Unfortunately, the current system and people in power seems to not give a damn about security and shady behavior, as long as the thing they are using is working and working well. Zoom is an example of very useful and performant software with shady company behind it, that's why people will continue using it.
Same with Uber, Google and bunch of other companies. It doesn't matter what they do, as their product is helping people enough for people to look past the terrible things.
Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’
#5But why are they doing this? What is the benefit?
Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’
#6Not that I'm in favor of this practice, but the one key feature that conference software must have is: it just works™.
Nothing turns you off more from a conferencing solution than: any problem getting it working right now.
When there is just the slightest issue, one person not being able to join, one person not getting voice to work, bad audio, your entire team is blocked/distracted. Which results in a collective distain for the solution and video conferencing as a whole.
This extends to getting the solution working for greenfield installs as simple as possible. Because who knows which non-tech users from which department all need to join and can't figure out how to set the permission in their browser right or install/use the other browser that is compatible.
So sadly, from a functionality point of view, you want have the software be able to force itself onto the user in the most usable state it can.
Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’
#7The whole torrent of grey area, just over the line and outright shady behavior at Zoom is a problem in itself even if all the separate instances in isolation aren't grounds to stop using them. Their responses to security issues and today's revelation of misleading marketing on E2E encryption make it clear they're not just making isolated mistakes. Shady is at the core of how they operate, this is an indication that Z…
Unfortunately, the current system and people in power seems to not give a damn about security and shady behavior, as long as the thing they are using is working and working well. Zoom is an example of very useful and performant software with shady company behind it, that's why people will continue using it. Same with Uber, Google and bunch of other companies. It doesn't matter what they do, as their product is helpin…
Enterprise customer DO give a damn about security. They can be slow to react, but rules are also there for a very long time. If Zoom doesn't want to loose most of their marketshare in favor of WebEx, they should probably address these issues.
Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’
#8But why are they doing this? What is the benefit?
If one assumes there is nothing really nefarious going on, it seems they are trying to gain market share: Growth marketing to raise the company value. And looking at some people already using "zoom" and "zooming" as synonym for video conferencing, it kind of works.
Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’
#9But why are they doing this? What is the benefit?
Several less mouse clicks to get into a meeting.
(I am not arguing in favor of the practice, just stating the advantage)
Re: How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’
#10Not that I'm in favor of this practice, but the one key feature that conference software must have is: it just works™. Nothing turns you off more from a conferencing solution than: any problem getting it working right now. When there is just the slightest issue, one person not being able to join, one person not getting voice to work, bad audio, your entire team is blocked/distracted. Which results in a collective dis…
I'm still curious why everyone thinks Zoom "just works" while others don't. Because in an enterprise context it is often hard to download an executable and run it with sufficient permissions. While Google and Microsoft both offer a product that "just works" with only a browser. What makes Zoom more "just works" than that?