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I'll pass on your zoom call

operand.online

31–40 of 74 posts

Re: I'll pass on your zoom call

#31
post #12
post #4

You can run zoom in the browser. At least you could some years ago. Encryption is relevant depending on what you're doing but not everything needs to be super secret. A common practice is to email or use secure file shares while on the call to maintain that security.

You can still. There's a small dark pattern to discourage it, though. You go to the URL for the call, click the button to launch the app, and when that fails, you see a small link to do the call in the Web browser.

I had to do it once and is extremely difficult, I don’t remember the details but I think you have to do dozens of extra steps on your account configuration and it won’t work on your phone unless you request the desktop version of the website.

Re: I'll pass on your zoom call

#32
post #12
post #4

You can run zoom in the browser. At least you could some years ago. Encryption is relevant depending on what you're doing but not everything needs to be super secret. A common practice is to email or use secure file shares while on the call to maintain that security.

You can still. There's a small dark pattern to discourage it, though. You go to the URL for the call, click the button to launch the app, and when that fails, you see a small link to do the call in the Web browser.

every once in a while, someone will ask me to screenshare on a shared monitor, then i will have to explain i cannot , because i am on zoom browser.

Its always great to see the reactions that gathers. Its a true rainbow: bemusement, curiosity, exasperation, outright suspicion...and everything in between!

Re: I'll pass on your zoom call

#33
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still. There's a small dark pattern to discourage it, though. You go to the URL for the call, click the button to launch the app, and when that fails, you see a small link to do the call in the Web browser.

I had to do it once and is extremely difficult, I don’t remember the details but I think you have to do dozens of extra steps on your account configuration and it won’t work on your phone unless you request the desktop version of the website.

I'm used to it by now.

Click on the meeting, where you will land on a download landpage. Then click the big download blue button in the center of the screen. WHen you click it a link will appear in the 2nd row below the blue button, something like "continue from browser", click on that, and you are golden

Re: I'll pass on your zoom call

#35

Do you recall back in the day when zoom used to Root kit your computer?

I found a zoom daemon running on my kid's MacBook a year after uninstalling it. Turns out uninstall didn't kill background processes, needed a reboot to flush it away.

I swear I remember this being called a feature, they left something around after uninstall so that if you clicked a Zoom link it could reinstall the client seamlessly. An ease-of-use thing for less technical people.

Re: I'll pass on your zoom call

#36
I mean, sure, fine, but nobody cares that some rando on the Internet doesn't agree to the ToS of Zoom. The article has no actionable information, is not interesting, and is beating an old subject to death.

When I get on conference calls on business software that is primarily sold to and intended for businesses, I'm not usually doing so with the assumption of privacy. I'm usually doing so in the context of the semi-public activity I do at work.

Re: I'll pass on your zoom call

#37

> Jitsi - their biggest offense in my book is their name, which is hard to say is or is not really offensive. And who can't remember not using a video conference app that didn't have an inoffensive name? If "jitsi" is offensive, who to? If not, which video conferencing app names are?

It comes from жици in Bulgarian, which means "wires".

I think the author should remove that part of the blog post because it detracts from the author's point and is even a bit embarrassing that they hadn't looked it up.

A reference for the name: https://desktop.jitsi.org/Documentation/FAQ.html#spelling

Re: I'll pass on your zoom call

#38

> Jitsi - their biggest offense in my book is their name, which is hard to say is or is not really offensive. And who can't remember not using a video conference app that didn't have an inoffensive name? If "jitsi" is offensive, who to? If not, which video conferencing app names are?

Sounds kind of like “Gypsy”, I guess.

Sounds far fetched. There's still the t vs p when pronounced by english speakers which are pretty distinct.

WP on the name origin:

> Jitsi (from Bulgarian: жици, "wires")

Re: I'll pass on your zoom call

#40
Zoom is founded by a Chinese origin guy.

Its security issues are already discussed earlier elsewhere, such as in this Reddit thread.

https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/18d1bgi/is_zoom_st...

[In the past is that Zoom said they were HIPAA Compliant, eg. had end-to-end encryption, and weren't. This was a huge issue at the beginning of the Pandemic when everybody started using them. This has since been fixed, but this wasn't their only lie or breach of trust.

A few years ago, Zoom tried to insert a clause in their ToS that would have allowed them to use audio, video or chat content for training AI. But due to a LOT of backlash they backpedalled on that and now they "just" use telemetry data, product-usage data, diagnostic data and similar data “that Zoom collects or generates in connection with your or your End Users’ use of the Services or Software”.

Zoom has had multiple instances of extremely sketchy behavior, including: * Deploying a rootkit on Macs to allow silent reinstallation of Zoom after removal. * Having vulnerabilities in said rootkit that took months to patch after trying to ghost the researcher. * Using useless encryption. * Lying about end-to-end encryption (they weren't even zero knowledge!) * Routing entirely US calls through China. * Lacking any reasonable access control to stop bombers.

They have been caught lying-- not corporate speaking, not fudging a bit, outright lying-- on multiple occasions and had to replace parts of their leadership structure to try to fix the bad PR around it.]

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