Thread by @TaylorOgan

This is a really interesting example of how misleading reporters can be on technologies they don't fully understand. I'm making a thread to summarize what's going on. It's frustrating to see how easily misguided the general public is on some really game-changing technologies.

https://twitter.com/NicoAGrant/status/1268020841054269440

1) BBG tech reporter @NicoAGrant tweeted a clickbaity quote from @zoom_us CEO @ericsyuan on Tuesday's Q1 earnings call that appears to suggest Zoom will stop encrypting free calls and will turn over flagged content to law enforcement unless users pay for encryption.

2) This led to a swarm of people boycotting Zoom, as you can imagine. Especially amid these tense times, many people thought "work together with FBI" meant "Zoom will help the government to surveil activity it deems potentially unlawful". This is far from the truth.

3) Fortunately, security consultant and former Facebook & Yahoo CSO @alexstamos gave @NicoAGrant a lesson on encryption 101. Encryption is not the same as end-to-end encryption (E2EE). All Zoom calls are already encrypted (both paid & unpaid).

4) E2EE encrypts content to everyone except the sender & receiver; anyone in between (Zoom or FBI) cannot intercept communication. Zoom bought @KeybaseIO last month so it can incorporate E2EE, which it will offer for its business & enterprise customers whose IDs Zoom can confirm.

5) Zoom won't offer E2EE to free users, because anyone can potentially sign up with a bogus email & name and spread images of child abuse, for which faced scrutiny for not offering a way to report images of child abuse shared by unidentified Zoombombers with police.

6) None of the major players (WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, BlueJeans) even offer E2EE by default, so rolling out E2EE will be groundbreaking. @alexstamos is publicly against mass surveillance by governments; he even teaches a class at Stanford on this very subject.

7) @NicoAGrant eventually ended up admitting he "ran out of space in the tweet" to specify he was referring to E2EE, but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Still waiting on @riptari to clear the air on her bogus @TechCrunch article, but we all know that will never happen.

8) TL;DR Some misleading articles suggested @zoom_us will stop encrypting free users' calls & will help the government to surveil any activity it deems potentially unlawful, which caused many to cancel their Zoom subscriptions. Zoom's security consultant set the record straight.