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Zoom plans on introducing better encryption for paying customers and important organisations. There are no plans to introduce such encryption for free customers.

According to Zoom, the decision to offer stronger encryption is a matter of security and technological and business factors. The company acknowledges the value of more robust encryption for crucial civil society organisations such as educational institutions, non-profit organisations and politicians. “Currently, the plan is to provide additional encryption for paying and enterprise customers known to us,” said Zoom. So far, there are no plans to introduce end-to-end encryption for free users as well.

Disadvantages of end-to-end encryption

End-to-end encryption is useful for users and organizations who want to video call each other safely and securely, but malicious users can also use the encryption. In the case of full encryption, Zoom employees cannot add themselves to calls to tackle abuse in real-time. Security experts and police have previously warned that criminals use encryption services more often to stay under the radar.

End-to-end encryption also affects the accessibility of Zoom. Users can no longer call in from a telephone line to join a Zoom meeting if full encryption is implemented. This very accessibility made Zoom one of the most popular applications during the corona crisis.

The new end-to-end encryption is unrelated to the AES 256-bit GCM encryption that Zoom introduced in version 5.0 of the videoconference service.

Tip: Read our comparison of all the popular videoconference solution.