Zoom End-to-End Encryption is Finally Here, But You’ll Sacrifice Many Features for it

Zoom, which shot to popularity at the onset of the Covid-19 lockdown as the messiah of work from home protocols, is finally rolling out end-to-end encryption across all its apps on various platforms. The feature comes after months of privacy and security debacles surrounding Zoom, which has seen the service grow from a bit-part enterprise communication service to one of the most-used apps in the world. Zoom’s end-to-end encryption is rolling out effective immediately, and while that is great, enabling it will mean that users will have to sacrifice a number of convenient features, such as live streaming, cloud recording of meetings, live transcription and more.

As part of a global press release, Zoom has revealed that its end-to-end encryption is using 256-bit AES-GCM end-to-end encryption standard for encrypting all forms of communication on the app. Once enabled, Zoom will use public key cryptography to distribute encrypted keys, using which a meeting host can distribute secure invites for participants to join. In comparison to standard 256-bit AES encryption, with end-to-end encryption, not even Zoom’s servers will be able to view the information being relayed from one user to another.