Sunday, April 05, 2020

Apparently, Zoom Isn't The End-All Be-All

With a large proportion of America's students now receiving their education via distance learning, many schools and teachers have settled on Zoom as the delivery method for video meetings.

I've seen many reports, from many different sources and news outlets, about the inherent security flaws built into Zoom.  Zoom is owned by an American company but its engineering team is in China, and there are fears that, either influenced by the Chinese government or not, some of the security flaws were intentional.  Also, Zoom is easily hacked by those who know how to do so, and there are reports of Zoom meetings being flooded with porn and other undesirable content.

As a result, New York City says no:
Teachers in public schools in New York City have been told not to use Zoom video conferencing technology for distance learning amid security and privacy concerns, according to media reports...

The Chalkbeat website reports that New York City’s Department of Education has received reports of issues impacting Zoom privacy and security. “Based on the DOE’s review of those documented concerns, the DOE will no longer permit the use of Zoom at this time,” it said, in a memo to principals obtained by Chalkbeat.

Instead, schools were advised to switch to Microsoft’s Microsoft Teams collaboration technology, according to Chalkbeat.
Update, 4/9/20: “Following two weeks of escalating privacy and security concerns about video conferencing platform Zoom, the U.S. Senate and Google have both banned its members and employees from using the software.” link

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

One of my kid's classmates filmed himself sitting in front of his computer, then ran that as his background. He could leave and look like he was still there. They figured it out, and he was in the room listening. He quickly popped back into the frame.

-- Ann in L.A.