Zoom Halts New Features for 90 Days to Fix Security Flaws
Zoom founder Eric S. Yuan announces a 90-day feature freeze to address severe privacy and security vulnerabilities as the platform's user base surges to 200 million daily users.
Zoom founder Eric S. Yuan announces that the company implements a 90-day "feature freeze" to focus entirely on fixing security and privacy issues. This shift in priority occurs as the videoconferencing platform experiences a massive surge in daily users, skyrocketing from 10 million in December to 200 million in March due to the global shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decision follows intense public scrutiny, including an FBI warning about "Zoombombing" incidents where unauthorized individuals hijack meetings to disrupt online classes and shout profanities. Additionally, Zoom faces a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of sharing user data with Facebook in violation of California privacy law, while cybersecurity researchers uncover vulnerabilities that potentially allow attackers to access webcams and steal Windows passwords.
In response to these mounting concerns, Yuan publicly apologizes for failing to meet user expectations regarding data security. The company actively deploys new security measures, including penetration testing, an enhanced bug bounty program, and the development of a transparency report for law enforcement data requests, while quickly releasing patches for the identified webcam and password vulnerabilities.