Now that all classes have transitioned to online, the video chat app Zoom has become more prominent, but why was it chosen above all others, and what are some of the issues it has come across in its past?
The state chancellor for community colleges had worked out a deal years ago with Zoom that allows all community college employees to have upgraded accounts.
A problem with the video platform has already been discovered. Zoom-bombing is where an uninvited participant can get into your call and spam it with various things.
This issue is due to how simple the app tries to be. It sacrifices basic privacy controls, such as kicking uninvited guests instead of banning them to keep it as the simplest and best user experience.
Last year Zoom had a significant privacy breach for its users on the Mac platform. Zoom decided that it would be a good idea to install a web server client-side for Mac users, and this led to a major breach that was quickly found and exploited by hackers.
When brought to the development team’s attention for zoom, they did nothing to try and fix the situation they had created; instead, they just kept focusing on new features for the platform. It took so long with nothing being done that Apple had to step in and fix it themselves.
With this massive influx of users, it has been a surprise that the user experience has been able to keep up … or has it?
“Zoom is just really clunky and has too many security issues,” says Jacob Jenkins, Chabot student. “It’s hard to concentrate especially if you’re already not interested in the subject.”
“I feel like with Zoom, it’s difficult to pay attention because there’s so much going on in the background both in your home and in the homes of the others,” said Jheremy Morales, Chabot Student. “Don’t get me started on the fact that this is all done on PC, so as soon as I start up mine, I see Steam, Blizzard, and all the other gaming apps just ready to distract me.”
Even though the platform had some issues, it has become the go-to platform for many people during this quarantine. The question remains, is this the best platform to be using?