Zoom and end-to-end-encryption

Hello,

After facing criticism for misleading people with its marketing that claimed end-to-end encryption, Zoom is now working to actually develop true end-to-end encryption, but there's a catch.

Eric Yuan, Zoom's CEO, said end-to-end encryption will not be available to free users.1

It's a surprising approach given Zoom's recent commitment to improving privacy and security for all of its users. We have serious concerns about this plan — especially in this moment.

End-to-end encryption should be available to everyone. Add your name.

Recent protests show exactly why end-to-end encrypted systems are so vital. End-to-end encryption ensures that messages are secure in transit — so that only the people communicating with each other have access to the decrypted message. Tools like Zoom can be critical to help protesters organize and communicate their message. But they should be able to do so without fear that their activity could be intercepted and misconstrued.

This is about more than this historic moment, however.

In recent years, U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr has repeatedly attacked tech companies for having strong encryption and has demanded backdoors for law enforcement to access user content.2

Companies like Apple have held their ground — insisting that a backdoor for law enforcement means a backdoor for cyber criminals, and that weakening encryption risks everyone's security.3 But now Congress is fueling Barr's attack on encryption with legislation called the EARN IT Act, which would threaten free expression and online security.4

We urge Zoom to reconsider this decision.

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Everyone should have the strongest possible security — and that means end-to-end encryption should be available to every Zoom user.

Read the letter we wrote with our partners at EFF asking Zoom to change course.

Thanks for speaking out,
Ashley and the rest of the Mozilla team

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