Thanks to the Covid-19 crisis, the entire world has shifted to online working. This mass exodus from the office has companies jumping from different video conferencing programs, trying to find the best tool for the lowest price. Naturally, the big names in VC are fighting a viciously competitive battle, and we get to watch the carnage unravel before us in a veritable PR soap opera.
From a recent exposé about Microsoft Teams vulnerabilities to hackers via a simple GIF, to the constant barrage of media about Zoom’s lax security, it seems like everyone is getting some kind of bad press, so who really comes out on top?
Lucky for you, we’re here to gather the latest info and try to make a clear comparison of the biggest, most trusted names in video conferencing – as well my uncle Jim’s highly controversial and nonsensically named app “Thyme4Meeting”. See how they compare in terms of security and privacy below.
The results are in...
When it comes to cyber security, any system is vulnerable. So what is the distinguishing factor between all of these platforms? In terms of security, I would say it’s the sheer size of the company and the resources they can and will devote to dealing with security issues. For example, Uncle Jim’s ridiculously named “Thyme4Meeting” app (a conferencing app that has nothing to do with the culinary arts), has not disclosed financial records and when asked about funding for security Jim laughed and replied “no one’s getting past the gators”.
While Microsoft dominates in this category, GoToMeeting is not far behind, even outshining Microsoft with their ability to provide end-to-end encryption on meetings. They do trade off some nice features, like remote screen control, in order to achieve that boast, however.
Webex also offers end-to-end encryption, and Cisco is also a very well-respected name when it comes to Security.
Google is predictably last in this race, with security updates only three times per year, and generally are quick to drop support for apps they no longer want to invest in.
While Microsoft and Webex excel on the security side, they are currently on the chopping block when it comes to privacy concerns. A damning exposé from Consumer Reports revealed some shady information buried in the Privacy Policies of Microsoft, Google, and Webex:
“According to their privacy policies, all three companies can collect data while you're in a video conference, combine it with information from data brokers and other sources to build consumer profiles, and potentially tap into the videos for purposes like training facial recognition systems”
While Uncle Jim’s Thyme4Meeting was not listed in the Consumer Reports article, he has openly admitted that the app is “recording 24/7” and that technically it is not possible to turn the camera off.
Zoom was also in the news for leaking user data to Facebook, allowing hosts to track when their participants were paying attention, installing secret web servers on Mac computers , and providing misleading or false information regarding its security and privacy policies.
Consumer Reports have made recommendations to all four companies for improving their privacy policies, but if privacy is one of your major concerns, we would suggest opting for GoToMeeting until these data mining tactics subside.
It is important to note as well that Microsoft Teams is not exclusively a video conference solution, but also part of a much larger Office 365 offering, which includes document management, productivity, social media and automation tools.
We would also advise against Thyme4Meeting, at least until the majority of the 24 class action lawsuits are resolved.
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For more information on how we collected our data, our rating system, or how we made our decisions, get in touch. I'll send my boring research for free!
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