Zoom, which has come under a lot of backlash recently due to privacy and security issues, announced today that the video conferencing company is enacting a feature freeze for the next 90 days. In a blog post, CEO Eric S. Yuan stated that until the current feature set is fixed, the company won"t be rolling out any new features. Moreover, in collaboration with third-party experts, it will prepare a transparency report.
Yuan also revealed that the number of daily users has increased from 10 million in December to 200 million daily users, both free and paid, in March. While stating that Zoom was primarily built for enterprise customers, he explained that the company had not foreseen this massive surge in users before the coronavirus pandemic.
"However, we did not design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying, and socializing from home. We now have a much broader set of users who are utilizing our product in a myriad of unexpected ways, presenting us with challenges we did not anticipate when the platform was conceived."
Zoom is also "enhancing" its bug bounty program. In addition to consulting with leading chief information security officials in the industry, it will be using white-box penetration testing to identify and fix loopholes in the system. Starting next week, Yuan will host a weekly webinar on Wednesdays at 10 am PT, detailing privacy and security updates for Zoom, for the next 90 days.
In a recent memo sent to staff, SpaceX prohibited employees from using Zoom effective immediately, citing "significant privacy and security concerns."