Sorry to say I don't do Zoom and will not be using it in future. Call it an abundance of caution and a firm position on the wider play.
This cuts me out of some social connections but its a position I have taken publically and will continue to do so.
Why do I take this position?
Well because it is a cybersecurity nightmare. It appears to be a very badly implemented piece of software.
Zoom uses non-industry-standard encryption for securing meetings, and there have been discrepancies between security claims in Zoom documentation and how the platform actually works. In other words they have a reputation for being bullshitters.
Claims that they have now tighened things up don't wash with me...once a BSr always a BSr.
Then there is the China connection. It's not that its Chinese.... it's the long arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CPP). Zoom traffic is routed through servers in China. aka the CPP can demand access. - and probably has access already. We are fighting an ongoing cyber war with the CPP and a global political war for democracy. This goes far beyond Zoom.
I don't plan to have anything to do with China's software or hardware if I can avoid it. And in this case I can avoid it.
I also happen to think that TELUS is making a very big mistake with Huawei. And the Canadian government continues to pursue a policy that has proved not to bear fruit with the rise of Xi - a hard line Stalinist with Chinese characteristics. There is precious little chance of China taking the democracy route in the foreseeable future with Xi in the saddle.
We, the democracies, are going to be in a titanic struggle with the CCP over the next 50 years and I think we should all recognize that it will be an all out struggle in which cyber and control of global platforms and AI will be the high ground.
The Chinese Communist Party play's by its own rules which includes a gulag of monumental proportions in Western China. The imprisonment of essentially a whole people - the Ughrs by the CCP's Xi is indicative of what the regime is capable of and why we need to push back. They make the Stasi look like powder puffs. We should take our cue not from Xi Jinping Thought but by Xi Jinping's actions.
Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig have been detained by Chinese authorities since December 2018 . There is no consular access to them. People "disappear" if they oppose the Communist party and speak in favour of democracy and the rule of law.
I will make do with other software and platforms for communicating. There are alternatives. A don't intend to follow the herd.
I expect alternatives to develop that are superior to Zoom. And I hope that Zoom will fade from the scene like the hoola hoop.
We are in a science and technology war in which the CPP grasps that its scale and percent of GDP devoted to research and to funding national champions ...like Huawei ..can win them global suzerainty .
I am available on a variety of other platforms.
While Zoom is headquartered in the United States, and listed on the NASDAQ, the mainline Zoom app appears to be developed by three companies in China - The Citizen Lab
The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto
