Zoom improved post 2021 lawsuits, with e2ee encryption in 2021 and post quantum in 2024.
It is the default video conferencing service between corporate groups, consultants, etc., with slack/teams mostly used for internal calls.
It was enabled by default for business accounts, which seem to work similar to Proton Family and Visionary accounts, so it was activated for them too. Probably the only bad point (but makes perfect sense for business plan).
Mfw a huge privacy organisation makes something to increase adoption (stickers, integration, nice visuals/UI) and certain privacy enthusiasts start hyperventilating.
Nobody serious uses Jitsi outside of enthusiasts. Proton isnāt aiming to be a niche product. Hope they integrate calendly next, and then allow attachments from teams and slack channels to mail.
I think what makes at least me nervous is that Zoom has such a long history of lying and it takes time to earn back trust. Proton themselves came out with that 2024 blog post āOpen source Zoom alternatives that respect your privacy.ā
Obviously, increasing adoption is great and all, but Protonās whole brand is supposed to be private by default, which Zoom is clearly not.
I can criticize something and still offer users the ability to use it if they want (which most corporations do). Create an alternative that can compete, maybe Proton will add it. I think they talked about Signal links being added someday.
True, but this type of integration feels more like an endorsement than just āoffering the ability to use it.ā You could always manually add a Zoom link to calendar events if you wanted to before.
One funny thing about this āintegrationā, is that it you cant join that Zoom meeting without having a separate Zoom.us / Google / Apple / MS account, all it does is a simple button.
Zoom is definitely bad, but Proton tries to āIntegrateā a service that simply ignored them, is pathetic.
Proton can simply āIntegrateā Jitsi / Brave Talk / Element Call which donāt require an account at all, Proton can set one of these as default.
If they want to add other services, fine, then also add Google Meet / MS Teams / Skype / Cisco Webex / Signal Call, these services require an separate account anyway, you can simply āautomateā the āintegrationā process by detecting the URL in description box, then pop that fancy little useless button.
Unfortunately, I think Jitsi Meet these days does require an account. But I wish they would have instead hosted Jitsi themselves, enabled E2EE by default, and maybe contributed to the code base to improve it further.
No but they enable the integration by default allowing employees of businesses using Proton to violate GDPR as well as and company policies without the firm noticing. This could be a big compliancy failure. If someone just shares data with Zoom hosted outside the EU and with no data processing agreement this is troublesome.
I highly doubt it is that high in EU at least. 90% of the time people use Teams for me. But yeah doesnt matter, this is also not ādefaultā so to say.
If you donāt understand the difference between building a stickers feature or improving a product design, and porting in a privacy invasive product as-is from a third-party company that doesnāt care about security, Iām not sure what to tell you
Funny thing is Unless thatās what was actually changed You can in fact join zoom meetings without an account.
Also @overdrawn98901 has one thing almost right. Itās likely that proton did the market research for businesses to decide on Zoom. And I agree with them that I hope Proton just adds more options like Signal, Jitsi and more.
Feel free to correct me but as far as I know this only applies to the official jit.si, I think other frontends or with self host you can do without an account requirement.
If you donāt understand how enterprise software works, just say so. Companies have locked in contracts and obligation to indulge clients and vendors with convenience. People canāt convert close friends to use encrypted messengers, but expect Proton or other companies to change entire ecosystems at once. Surely Proton should have handicapped their pitch to business users to wait for jitsi or whatever flavor of the month Foss, community funded software to get their stuff together.
Next time link an alternative with the scale of adoption Zoom has. Hopefully yāall donāt disintegrate when they integrate software like MS Teams (which is crazy invasive too).
As an aside, I one time needed to do video conferencing with someone. They suggested Zoom, I suggested Jitsi, and their reply was āwell letās just meet in person to keep it simplerā. Even the tiniest friction against what everyone else typically uses is enough to block people in their tracks. Iād imagine that the total percentage of people using Jitsi vs Zoom is like the number of people using Internet Explorer vs Chrome, but that is just my opinion.
They certainly did some research, but Zoom / MS / Google all offer mail and calendar in their ecosystems, I donāt understand what makes Proton to decide to include ONLY Zoom. If thereās a deal between the two companies, then Zoom would also include Proton as one of their āloginā options. However, as I captured above, it does not.
Video conferencing integration
Weāre introducing the ability to link video conferencing accounts from external providers to Proton Calendar, so you can create video links for events or join video conferencing calls from within Proton Calendar.
While Zoom now offers E2EE in their meetings , given their excellent background and track record, I would 100% avoid using their services, just like avoiding Whatsapp. But business is business, so canāt blame them for including Zoom, but including ONLY Zoom and no alternatives (esp. better alternatives exists) is the issue.
Yeah I get it.
More or Less I have this with the uphill battle I have with signal where I tell them to use it but they say āBuT You HaVe ViBeRā
Well hereās a meme for them:
