Zoom Acquires Keybase

Post by benhurmarcel » Sat, May 09, 2020, 2:40 PM UTC

usrusr wrote: post #296

coldpie wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's pretty clearly an aquihire. Zoom gets a team of highly skilled cryptographers and Internet protocol experts. Good for them. But that means the team that created Keybase as an innovate PKI store won't be working on that anymore. That's not Zoom's business, and probably won't be, as Keybase themselves never figured out how to turn it into a business.

The biggest challenge with acquihiring is retention. Allowing the acquired team to continue what they were doing is the only somewhat foolproof strategy to deal with it. It's a question of pocket depth and expectations. How much will the new team contribute to the "home" product? If expectations are too high chances are that much of the team won't stay and the acquisition will turn out to be a waste of money. With lo…

Post by wutwutwutwut » Sat, May 09, 2020, 6:33 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #705

wutwutwutwut wrote: post #665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point was that you should check your facts before making an argument. Not exactly a crazy idea, right?

Your “point” was to be an asshole, and congratulations you’ve now succeeded twice.

Post by teknologist » Sat, May 09, 2020, 10:26 PM UTC

ematvey wrote: post #724

mulmen wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote Zoom off last year after the local webserver nonsense. Any company that can convince itself that is a good idea doesn't deserve my business. There's no path to redemption. Game over. In the post Covid world I was forced to compromise a bit and I will join a Zoom call in a browser (when it works) or install the app on my phone if I have to. I trust iOS to not get totally owned by a rogue app more than anything…

It could be argued that acquiring a whole security-focused company is a signal they’re seriously reconsidering their approach to security and deserve a benefit of the doubt.

Post by teknologist » Sat, May 09, 2020, 11:46 PM UTC

notriddle wrote: post #456

cbg0 wrote: post #25

> Zoom does not and will not proactively monitor meeting contents, but our trust and safety team will continue to use automated tools to look for evidence of abusive users based upon other available data. > Zoom has not and will not build a mechanism to decrypt live meetings for lawful intercept purposes. > We also do not have a means to insert our employees or others into meetings without being reflected in the part…

Well, yeah, duh. What do you expect them to do? Hire a PMC and fight a war with the police when they come around to raid the server room? Go into hiding so that the security agency can't steal the upgrade signing key from them? We can't expect all of the internet to operate like Wikileaks and The Pirate Bay. If the justice system is broken, then the people aren't safe.

Post by qaisjp » Sun, May 10, 2020, 7:20 AM UTC

soulofmischief wrote: post #320

ddevault wrote: post #53

Keybase helped me to identify a trend in the software industry: using a pretty UI to cover up the disruption of an open ecosystem with a closed, centralized replacement. Keybase seemed cool on the face of it - making encryption easier is a laudible goal, and PGP certainly could use the improvement. But, thanks to Keybase, now I ask different questions upfront. Beware the Keybase formula: 1. Integrates with an existin…

Keybase packed together many different technologies in one place. I don't think any of us who moved to Keybase had delusions that it would be around forever. But it's an amazingly comprehensive suite for its small scope and the open source product that replaces it will only exist because Keybase existed. If the writing is placed on the wall (the marker cap is open right now) then replacing each of Keybase's features…