Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all • Hacker News Board

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#11

Post by Hemospectrum » Wed, Apr 01, 2020, 10:29 PM UTC

tetrisgm wrote: post #9

I've seen about 10 different articles against Zoom during the past 3 days. I really don't enjoy using Zoom, but the volume and frequency of criticism is odd. Has anyone figured out where it's coming from?

Zoom usage has skyrocketed in the past few weeks among quarantined users. Plenty of them are sick of hearing about the virus itself. Covering Zoom is a way for news outlets to reach that audience.

As it happens, there are plenty of bad things to say about Zoom, which has hit headlines multiple times in the past year for security problems and various other dick moves.

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#12

Post by vikramkr » Wed, Apr 01, 2020, 10:30 PM UTC

tetrisgm wrote: post #9

I've seen about 10 different articles against Zoom during the past 3 days. I really don't enjoy using Zoom, but the volume and frequency of criticism is odd. Has anyone figured out where it's coming from?

The societal importance of zoom has massively increased as it has suddenly become a fundamental part of the modern economy over the past month or so. This means it undergoes more scrutiny.

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#13

Post by im3w1l » Wed, Apr 01, 2020, 10:30 PM UTC

tetrisgm wrote: post #9

I've seen about 10 different articles against Zoom during the past 3 days. I really don't enjoy using Zoom, but the volume and frequency of criticism is odd. Has anyone figured out where it's coming from?

A lot of people have being told by their employer to use zoom recently. Stands to reason some of them wont like it.

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#14

Post by jjtheblunt » Wed, Apr 01, 2020, 10:31 PM UTC

tetrisgm wrote: post #9

I've seen about 10 different articles against Zoom during the past 3 days. I really don't enjoy using Zoom, but the volume and frequency of criticism is odd. Has anyone figured out where it's coming from?

The macOS version of Zoom installs or installed an unannounced web server on macOS that runs even when Zoom isn't running, and could perform remotely controlled actions on the macOS host.

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#15

Post by TooCleverByHalf » Wed, Apr 01, 2020, 10:34 PM UTC

jdlyga wrote: post #2

We use BlueJeans at work, and for my part time master's program. It doesn't have virtual backgrounds like Zoom, but it is very reliable and easy to use.

I have had the exact opposite experience with BlueJeans :(

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#16

Post by samatman » Wed, Apr 01, 2020, 10:34 PM UTC

jjtheblunt wrote: post #14

tetrisgm wrote: post #9

I've seen about 10 different articles against Zoom during the past 3 days. I really don't enjoy using Zoom, but the volume and frequency of criticism is odd. Has anyone figured out where it's coming from?

The macOS version of Zoom installs or installed an unannounced web server on macOS that runs even when Zoom isn't running, and could perform remotely controlled actions on the macOS host.

This, in a nutshell.

I'm a simple man. When my OS vendor has to push an update to remove a misbehaving program from my computer, I consider it malware, and will never install it again.

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#17

Post by shmerl » Wed, Apr 01, 2020, 10:37 PM UTC

Someone should start offering big scale services based on Matrix.

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#18

Post by nicehat » Wed, Apr 01, 2020, 10:42 PM UTC

dumbfoundded wrote: post #4

bryan_w wrote: post #3

Whoever is orchestrating this hitjob against zoom, is doing a bad job of it. Most people are going to ignore articles like this. After a certain amount of stories, outrage fatigue sets in and people start to see it as a hit piece and dismiss it, no matter how bad it really is.

No one forced Zoom to do any of the shady things they're doing. The idea of it being a "hitjob" feels silly given all of the article's claims have evidence. It's simply what you get for going in the spotlight. That being said, I do feel the tech industry gets more than it's fair share of criticism. Maybe it's just we've become complacent with the ways that other industries abuse their customers.

>That being said, I do feel the tech industry gets more than it's fair share of criticism.

I don't. Afaik the tech inustry is still creating and selling spying and tracking software, enabling unprecedented and unaccountable global surveillance, while being appallingly quiet over the torture and illegal detention of critical whistleblowers.

From hacking people's brains with big data and advertising to corporate espionage, the enabling of massive wealth transfer to billionaires, and the exploitation of resources and the third world, I have very little sympathy for the mean things people are saying about ye.

These aren't isolated mistakes, and actions to correct them have still not been taken. Gates is lionized for his charity work after decades of bullying and strangling competition, while Stallman is forced out of his positions because of a smear campaign. The FCC killed net neutrality with fake data - what did ye do? And now people who I wouldn't trust with an abacus are coming after encryption - and I'm hearing barely a peep from the technosphere.

The tech industry needs more criticism, cuz it sure as fuck isn't getting it's shit together voluntarily.

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#19

Post by freepor » Wed, Apr 01, 2020, 10:43 PM UTC

tetrisgm wrote: post #9

I've seen about 10 different articles against Zoom during the past 3 days. I really don't enjoy using Zoom, but the volume and frequency of criticism is odd. Has anyone figured out where it's coming from?

The press always goes after the top dog. The articles about factory worker conditions are always about Apple, not Acer, even though Acer's are almost surely worse (due to no press scrutiny).

Zoom is the top dog in videoconferencing right now, and videoconferencing has grown by a factor of ~1 million in importance over the last three weeks.

Re: Maybe we shouldn’t use Zoom after all

#20

Post by rshnotsecure » Wed, Apr 01, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

Zoom has about 130,000 subdomains. Cisco, established 20 years earlier and operating in the same space and many more, has 45,000.

About 40-50k of Zoom's subdomains are customers. Company.Zoom.Us.

About 5k of the subdomains reference MMR. Likely this means "Meet Me Rooms" which are seen in data centers.

About 200 contain the word tracking, 300 the word face, and 400 the word elasticsearch. Something like 700 contain the word vip. Maybe 1000 gitlab. They really like gitlab! These are not customers again and the whole structure is impressive and strictly followed.

IPA is the most used term after zoom of course. I think it is a reference to "international phonetic alphabet" for the China based engineers. Anita is used around 4K times. Likely this references the CFO since 2018.

Most interestingly, every US state and every Chinese province has about 10-20 subdomains carved out for it.

So xj-restricted.acv.ipa.zoom.us refers to "Xinjiang".

And xz-influxdata.amp.ipa.zoom.us refers to "Tibet".

Finally as a last example "va-accounts.asset2.ipa.zoom.us" refers to Virginia one would assume. All the other states are there. Didn't check other countries though.

Have never worked at like an MPLS company but overall fascistic fastidiously well designed naming schema that they had the discipline to adhere to. These can get out of hand so fast at companies so again cool.