Image: vicky leta / mashable
By Jack Morse
When it comes to protecting your privacy, not all video chat apps are created equal.
This much has been made abundantly clear as the coronavirus pandemic forces many to work and socialize remotely for the foreseeable future. And while Zoom has been on the receiving end of justified criticism, a new report by Mozilla Foundation privacy researchers warns that it’s far from the only privacy offender.
For the report, released today, researchers looked at 15 video chat apps — Zoom, Google Hangouts, FaceTime, Jitsi Meet, Skype, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Signal, Microsoft Teams, BlueJeans, GoTo Meeting, Cisco WebEx, Houseparty, Discord, and Doxy.me — and evaluated them based on a host of categories. Not all the apps fared well, to put it bluntly.
“Researchers combed through privacy policies, sifted through app specifications, and looked at critical questions like whether the apps share user data with third parties or if they alert users when meetings are being recorded,” explained a press release accompanying the report.
Notably, Houseparty did not meet the Mozilla Foundation’s so-called minimum security guidelines.
“Houseparty appears to be a personal data vacuum (though kudos to its privacy policy for clearly telling users that),” reads the accompanying press release.
The report itself — which the Mozilla Foundation told Mashable over email was compiled by former national tech journalists, an A/V expert, an engineering manager, and a privacy activist — goes even further.
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“Houseparty uses tracking tools and collects your data in a number of ways including through social media and third-party apps,” it warns. “It shares your data with third parties, and uses your data to target you for marketing purposes.”
Only Houseparty, Discord, and Doxy.me — a telemedicine app — failed to meet the Mozilla Foundation’s minimum security guidelines (emphasis on “minimum”). That is particularly troubling with Doxy.me, as the type of conversations held on a telemedicine app are likely a lot more sensitive than those held over, say, something like Houseparty.
The findings, however, weren’t all bad. Apple’s FaceTime and Signal, which both employ end-to-end encryption, received high marks. Even Zoom, which has made a bunch of recent security updates and pledged even more, received decent marks.
“To Zoom’s credit,” reads the report, “they have acknowledged their mistakes and seem to be working hard to fix them.”
Still, as Ashley Boyd, Mozilla’s vice president of advocacy, observed in the press release, none of this is exactly cause to celebrate.
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“Even though most of the services met our Minimum Security Standards,” she explained, “many of them could still pose risks that consumers need to be aware of.”
So consider yourself warned. But hey, maybe in a weird and exceedingly roundabout way, this is actually good news? Because the next time your annoying friend or boss wants to video chat with you for the millionth time, just point them Boyd’s quote and explain that, sorry, your privacy isn’t worth the risk.
