Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jlei523 2256 days ago
Why do people hate Zoom so much? I just received an email today from Zoom outlying all the fixes they just released.

They went from 10m users/week to 200m/week in less than one month.

So what they struggled? Most products would struggle with that kind of ramp up. They owned up to it and fixed pretty much all the complaints. And they're providing a valuable service to the world, most of it for free.

Stop hating Zoom.
4 comments
yoz-y 2256 days ago
Most problems they had (at least those reported on) were not really tied to the number of users though, that would be quite excusable. The criticism was mostly poor security[1] due to bad decisions in the first place.

It mostly highlights that in order to rush the product out of the door many shortcuts were taken and security shouldn't be one of them in this day and age.

[1]: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/04/security_and_...

link
gnud 2256 days ago
They straight up lied about offering E2E encryption. Don't know if that's fixed, actually.

Apple had to release an update of their OS to remove Zooms rootkit.

(I'm not a Zoom user, but that's just because my employer uses something else).

link
ekianjo 2256 days ago
> So what they struggled?

It's not about that. People realized the privacy implications and the fact that Zoom was not forthcoming about some aspects of it.

link
justinjlynn 2256 days ago
> Stop hating Zoom.

No. I don't trust Zoom. I don't like that people like you apologise for them while they continue to make choices that actively endanger users.

I don't like their business model, and I don't like that I'm forced to use it to interact with people. I don't like that I can't verify it's doing what it says it's doing and am actively prevented from doing so. I don't like Zoom and I don't like that I can't choose to not install their spyware because people who don't know any better and don't have any way to protect themselves keep installing it and forcing me to use it.

No. I won't stop hating Zoom until I - and the people who don't know how Zoom is hurting them and so use it anyway - can be free of it and the people who make it so awful.

link
batiudrami 2256 days ago
this is tech, you can't trust anyone. it's par for the course here. zoom just happen to be chinese.
link
justinjlynn 2256 days ago
This has absolutely nothing to do with where Zoom is developed or by whom. It is the stated privacy policy and the software engineering practices to which the company adheres - and the security best practices to which they do not - which are abhorrent to me. This isn't about tech. This isn't about nationality. This is about a social tool being used to exploit people and the network effects that has on others who may have no choice.

That's why Jitsi Meet is important. It is everything Zoom isn't - while still accomplishing nearly everything Zoom attempts to accomplish while exploiting its users. That's why it's important.

Yes, you can trust - so long as you always verify while trusting.

link