I hope that Zoom will make it easier to use their web client because of this.
This is lifechanging, the zoom native app is a security nightmare and the web experience is deliberately crap.
Google bans Zoom from employees' computers
81–90 of 450 posts
Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Use Jitsi
Jitsi is the worst in my experience, particularly with many people (ie more than two or three).
My experience: On one computer it froze Firefox. On another computer it crashed Firefox. On my phone (Jitsi Meet via F-Droid): I once had a big meeting where it seemed like only call-in users could hear me, another time during a rather large meeting the application crashed, and recently I had a successful conference with 4 people.
The phone application had a few updates between the failures and the success, so perhaps everything's sorted out. I also need to give the desktop native application a try.
I'm rooting for them, I really hope we get a viable free software option. But we should be honest about the state of things right now.
Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers
#83Some thoughts:
1. Google's threat model may not be your threat model, and it definitely isn't the threat model of my daughter's school. A corporation like Google may be concerned using native applications, written in unsafe languages, written by developers from other corporations in China. That said, Zoom isn't wrong for everyone.
2. Google is motivated to push their own solution for obvious reasons.
3. Tavis, or others, at Project Zero might know some things, maybe we'll find out.
Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers
#84I mean, Google bans MS Office from employees' computers as well (with special-case exceptions), so they use Docs instead. Since Google has Meet (Hangouts), this isn't really surprising. It mainly sucks for when an employee (especially in sales) has a call with a client that uses Zoom and can't use Meet, because then you're forced to dial in, which just puts you at a disadvantage when everyone can see everyone's face…
> because then you're forced to dial in, which just puts you at a disadvantage when everyone can see everyone's face except yours.
Can't they just participate in a call from the browser? I thought Google only banned the application/app, not usage of the service altogether.
Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Googlers don't use Zoom for company work. It was banned as in it can no longer be installed on corp laptops.
Right but it's also astonishing that was allowed before. If it's not needed for work why would it be installed? Why would any non-work software be allowed on corp laptops?
Google allows personal software to be installed in a corp laptop, subject to restrictions and limitations like this. It's not encouraged, though, and if something happens because you installed a third party software then it's your responsibility.
Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers
#86God please don't make me use a non-zoom video conferencing tool! I have used about a dozen over the years in my role as a consultant, and Zoom has been by far the most reliable. I’m hopeful lots of good can come from the scrutiny, but please Zoom get your act together so I don’t have to use some other buggy thing that doesn’t actually work.
I knew I would get downvoted. But folks seriously don’t remember the pain before Zoom. And the current pain anytime we have to use a GoToMeeting, Google Meet, Webex or other tool that barely functions. Human interaction that actually works right now is so important. And I simply have a hard time trusting another product to actually do the call reliably
Google Meet is the only one of these that has always worked reliably for me. Doesn't require any strange clients, works in most browsers, never randomly fails to move just some person's audio and so on.
Disclaimer: I work for Alphabet, but already held this opinion before I did.
Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers
#87Is there any technical merit to this ban? Why would forcing use of web version mitigate any concerns? (The concerns I have heard are lack of proper end-to-end encryption, servers in China and the possibility to join chatrooms by guessing a name (zoom-bombing)).
Seems perfectly sensible to ban all software that is not pre-approved by IT, InfoSec and Legal. You can't safely assume all your employees are properly assessing the risks unless that is their actual job. If you only allow what you know then you can reason about your risk.
This reads like it is specifically targeting zoom.
Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers
#88How do people feel about BlueJeans?
Not nearly as good.
Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Googlers don't use Zoom for company work. It was banned as in it can no longer be installed on corp laptops.
Right but it's also astonishing that was allowed before. If it's not needed for work why would it be installed? Why would any non-work software be allowed on corp laptops?
Don't think it's too uncommon to be able to install Spotify on a work computer.
Re: Google bans Zoom from employees' computers
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Googlers don't use Zoom for company work. It was banned as in it can no longer be installed on corp laptops.
Right but it's also astonishing that was allowed before. If it's not needed for work why would it be installed? Why would any non-work software be allowed on corp laptops?
We used Zoom during sales into Google. Therefore, our prospect had to install Zoom.