Eric Yuan, the founder of the video-conferencing app, Zoom, has reacted to the backlash from its users over security, safety, and privacy concerns.
In a statement issued by the company, as seen by Nairametrics, Yuan sincerely explained why Zoom “falls short” of users’ expectations.
According to him, Zoom was not quite prepared for the demand surge it has recently been experiencing.
The company has experiencing unprecedented increase in downloads and daily active users after the Coronavirus pandemic forced many companies around the world to initiate work-from-home practices for their workers.
Looking at Zoom. (ZM)
They provide video chart services.
With a stay at home order around, business are buying and downloading Zoom for their operations.
Look at active users…below 5m in Jan to 26.9m in March 2020. Stock rising, market up
Is this a buy?
Let dive in pic.twitter.com/zrV8WQxckZ
— Kalu Aja (@FinPlanKaluAja1) March 29, 2020
This caused a surge in utilisation of videoconferencing apps, with Zoom’s daily participation — both free and paid— jumping from 10 million in December 2019 to over 200 million in March this year.
Statista had reported that Zoom and Skype recorded 26.9 million and 6.2 million downloads in March respectively.
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However, Zoom was unprepared for the sudden growth. And for this, Yuan apologised. He said:
“We recognize that we have fallen short of the community’s – and our own – privacy and security expectations. For that, I am deeply sorry, and I want to share what we are doing about it.
“We did not design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying, and socializing from home. We now have a much broader set of users who are utilizing our product in a myriad of unexpected ways, presenting us with challenges we did not anticipate when the platform was conceived.”
The fault in Zoom’s privacy and security was detected after many big organisations, including those in the public and private sectors, conducted security reviews of Zoom’s ‘network and the data center layers’ for video-conferencing.
Yuan assured that Zoom is committed to addressing the situation. According to him, Zoom shall, over the next ninety days, deficate all the resources needed to ” identify, address and fix issues proactively.”
He added that Zoom is also committed to transparency throughout the process of identifying and fixing the errors.
“Transparency has always been a core part of our culture. I am committed to being open and honest with you about areas where we are strengthening our platform and areas where users can take steps of their own to best use and protect themselves on the platform.“
