Zoom will offer end-to-end encryption to free users, with a catch

Zoom decided that the FBI might not need access to free users' video calls after all.

The company behind the popular video-conferencing tool announced today that, despite earlier promises to the contrary, it intends to offer end-to-end encryption to both its paying and non-paying users. This is a big privacy win for those who rely on Zoom to chat with friends and family, as end-to-end encryption means that only the people on a call — not Zoom or some random third party — have access to the conversation.

Notably, this change of heart follows criticism of Zoom CEO Eric Yuan who, in an earnings call earlier this month, said that his company would intentionally keep end-to-end encryption from non-paying users to better assist law enforcement.

"Free users, for sure, we don’t want to give that [end-to-end encryption]," The Next Web reported Yuan as saying. "Because we also want to work it together with FBI and local law enforcement, in case some people use Zoom for bad purpose."

Today's announcement reflects an evolution of that calculus, although there are a couple of huge caveats worth noting. For starters, Zoom calls will not be end-to-end encrypted by default. Rather, much like with Facebook's Messenger, users will have to enable the added protection themselves.

In addition, free users will have to fork over additional info before getting access to end-to-end encryption.

"Free/Basic users seeking access to E2EE will participate in a one-time process that will prompt the user for additional pieces of information, such as verifying a phone number via a text message," reads the Zoom blog post announcing the company's plan. "Many leading companies perform similar steps on account creation to reduce the mass creation of abusive accounts."

For technical reasons, enabling end-to-end encryption will also limit the ways users can connect to calls. One such existing option, dialing into a Zoom call from a traditional phone line, will not be supported for end-to-end encrypted calls.

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Zoom's blog post says that an "early beta" version should be released in July of this year, so be on the lookout for the option to further encrypt your chats.

In the meantime, if you're looking for privacy, consider a Zoom alternative like Signal or FaceTime that provides end-to-end encryption by default. Because when it comes to your privacy, there's no good reason to wait.

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