So many people have criticized ZOOM for its connections with China, for its vulnerability issues, for its risk with Zoombombing, it is time an old codger writes some feedback thoughts.
I am not a technology guru, but I am somewhat tech savvy after so many years of teaching and working with technology. I wish I were better with it so I could help people more, but age is what it is.
ZOOM has responded to the many slings and arrows directed at it for its connection with China, for all that that entails. There is no way for a person of my capability to confirm or negate the veracity of the claims made against ZOOM.
My feeling is when enough people, much more knowledgeable than I am about technology, disclaim or criticize ZOOM as being less than it professes to be, we all will reject the company and stop using it. For now, I will continue to use the application and while using it avoid talking about personal or confidential material.
To be frank, I am somewhat reassured by the message blogged by he CEO Yuan. Here is what he recently posted:
- I became an American citizen in July 2007.
- I have lived happily in America since 1997.
- Zoom is an American company, founded and headquartered in California, incorporated in Delaware, and publicly traded on NASDAQ (ZM).
- Zoom is also a global company, with 21 offices around the world, including in the UK, Australia, Japan, France, and elsewhere. More than half of our employees are based in the United States.
- Similar to many multinational technology companies, Zoom has operations and employees in China. And like many multinational technology companies, our offices in China are operated by subsidiaries of the U.S. parent company. Our engineers are employed through these subsidiaries. We don’t hide this. On the contrary, we disclose this type of information in our public filings, as appropriate. Our operations in China are materially similar to our U.S. peers who also operate and have employees there.
- Among our 17 global co-located data centers, we have 1 (one) co-located data center in China. This data center is in facilities run by a leading Australian company and is geofenced. Its design ensures meeting data of users outside of mainland China stays outside of mainland China. It exists primarily to satisfy our Fortune 500 customers that have operations or customers in China and want to use our platform to connect with them.
There are likely many people who can and will poke holes in what CEO Yuan writes. We live in a world where skepticism, doubt and disbelief creep into every conversation. Our world is shrinking and likely we should consider everything with a grain of salt. But to doubt everything, everyone and every claim may lead us into a world where we do not want to go.
Let’s use ZOOM openly and with tenuous confidence, hoping we are not being led down a path. It is a tremendous tool that benefits us all. We should be careful with it, but then we should be careful with anything we use from or on the Internet. We are entering a new world, one filled with surprises, vulnerabilities and dangers, but let’s be confident that the benefits to be gained in that world outweigh the potential threats.
CEO Yuan…thank you for your message.
