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Zoom monitors activity on your computer

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121–130 of 149 posts

Re: Zoom monitors activity on your computer

#121

Post by fulldecent2 »

I don't use Zoom. But I'll assume it's the same as Google Meet and so now I'll complain about Google Meet.

1. When the call quality is less than 100%, it is difficult to attribute this blame to the other person, my equipment, my connection, or the service provider. A heartbeat signal could fix this.

2. When somebody else is presenting, I can't point on THEIR screen. I have fumble through "higher, higher, too high, it's on the bar, do you see the bar?, yes, click on that one, you're right it doesn't really look like a pencil does it?"

Re: Zoom monitors activity on your computer

#122

Post by hackeerTwo »

jfolkins wrote: post #39

Super timely. Even on my linux box I noticed yesterday that zoom, even though I had "closed" the application, was still running `ps -ef | grep zoom` so I killed it. After reading this, I've deleted it too. Super weird.

True, I used zoom about a month ago and it's still running a process in the background.

Re: Zoom monitors activity on your computer

#123

Post by blacksmith_tb »

jjoonathan wrote: post #63
manigandham wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a choice to not use Zoom.

Sure! Except it was mandated by your boss. Or you have a choice between a bunch of offerings with the exact same screwball terms. This might not actually be true for videoconferencing now that it's getting somewhat democratized and competitive. Point is: "just boilerplate" is just rationalization. An honest person would never present it as comforting and a knowledgeable person would never find it comforting. Of cours…

True, though you could dial in from a phone (even a landline), unless you were being asked to not only attend but also share your screen.

Re: Zoom monitors activity on your computer

#124

Post by gsich »

manigandham wrote: post #113
gsich wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still private files. So an oversight by Zoom. A picture of you is absolutely a PII. >They also don't store your files. Nobody can prove that. Assume the worst, especially with a company like Zoom. Remember it was about: >They have to name every possible thing they can potentially receive And files certainly fall into that.

That's not how PII is defined nor how privacy policies work. They list potential PII received in standard categories with normal product usage and backend processing. Otherwise every server on the internet can be sent data by you at anytime which effectively makes listing things pointless.

Definition is wrong then.

That's the point.

Re: Zoom monitors activity on your computer

#125

Post by ss3000 »

bobwaycott wrote: post #83
dmurray wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems reasonable for Zoom or any app to know whether its window has focus. That doesn't imply spying on anything else you're doing.

I think the issue is not that Zoom knows if its application window has focus, but that it reports focus state to anyone other than the user. For example: 1. Zoom knows it’s not focused on Bob’s machine, and notifies Bob that someone has begun sharing their screen. 2. Zoom knows it’s not focused on Bob’s machine and notifies Sally of this. Scenario 1 seems acceptable and helpful. Scenario 2 is invasive and unnecessary…

This reminds me of read receipts in chat apps. Hate them with a passion. I usually just leave the chat itself unopened and read the notifications until I'm ready to actually reply.

Re: Zoom monitors activity on your computer

#126

Post by cassianoleal »

hjek wrote: post #119
cassianoleal wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have used Jitsi. Last week I did a few pairing sessions where the both of us were sharing our screens and still had our webcams on in the corner and it was awesome. We tried to do a standup with (I think) 8 people and it was terrible - people would randomly not get any audio for stretches of time, video would get choppy or lost completely, it was not pleasant. I will keep using it for pairing since I haven't found…

I've been using Jitsi Meet a lot as well. It has terrible Firefox support but works decent if all participants are using Chromium / Chrome[0]. Asking other people to install Chromium makes me feel dirty but I don't know any other login-free cross-platform open source easy-to-use video conferencing apps than Jitsi Meet. [0]: https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet/issues/4

That could have been the issue, I haven't asked to be honest.

It does tell you that Firefox is not supported when you log in though, so I'd have expected people to say something but hey ho...

Re: Zoom monitors activity on your computer

#127

Post by tympan »

userbinator wrote: post #85
discreditable wrote: post #37

When someone sends you a zoom invite, cancel the download, then click the having problems link to download again. Cancel it again. It will show you a link to join by browser. A few other meeting apps have dark patterns like this. One of my favorite things about Hangouts Meet is it's web first.

What I find irritating is this proliferation of meeting apps like these, all using their own proprietary variations of protocols and consuming huge amounts of system resources, when there has been a standard protocol for it that's been around since the late 90s, with a variety of different clients available: SIP. One could be sent a SIP URI for a meeting and it would work in any client. Maybe it's like IRC vs all the…

The problem with SIP was that without a central directory there was no easy way to find someone. Plus the client interfaces were, quite frankly, fugly, and management decision-makers dismissed them in favour of Skype etc.

Re: Zoom monitors activity on your computer

#128

Post by tympan »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #101
tmpz22 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the best product usually wins in this space. Usually this means well-managed vanity features like sleek design, animations, emote, but also occasionally more heavy weight performance improvements like video quality and sound quality. Ultimately if the standards and protocols you mentioned provided for that, they'd have won, but they didn't so here we are.

Standards are distinctly not products. Also, the thing that tends to win in this space is lock-in and network effects.

What really wins is if management thinks the interface is pretty.

Re: Zoom monitors activity on your computer

#129

Post by tympan »

chadlavi wrote: post #60
discreditable wrote: post #37

When someone sends you a zoom invite, cancel the download, then click the having problems link to download again. Cancel it again. It will show you a link to join by browser. A few other meeting apps have dark patterns like this. One of my favorite things about Hangouts Meet is it's web first.

Thanks for this! I've just been refusing to use it

Discord seems to be better than most others

Re: Zoom monitors activity on your computer

#130

Post by GuqLyr »

guessmyname wrote: post #93
discreditable wrote: post #37

When someone sends you a zoom invite, cancel the download, then click the having problems link to download again. Cancel it again. It will show you a link to join by browser. A few other meeting apps have dark patterns like this. One of my favorite things about Hangouts Meet is it's web first.

This is one of the reasons why I always join a Zoom call from my phone, by calling their international numbers [1]. Recruiters sometimes ask me to turn my video on during interviews… I politely decline and move on to other opportunities. Their app is so privacy invasive, I cannot understand why people keep using it, specially considering 2018 vulnerability [2]. Feross Aboukhadijeh talks about Zoom security problems i…

Looks like Zoom is discussed in Lecture 18: https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs253/lectures/Lecture%2018.p...
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