More Than Half of Adults Say Their Video Calls Are Secure, Despite Hacking Concerns – Morning Consult

Video calls have become one of the default modes of communication for those who are stuck at home during social distancing. In March, Zooms daily users grew to more than 200 million from a previous high of 10 million, Chief Executive Eric Yuan said earlier this month, and Skype reported that it had 40 million people using its platform each day in March, up 70 percent month over month.

However, with that growth came an increasing number of media reports highlighting privacy mishaps among such services, and scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators has followed particularly for Zoom. The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a warning last month that Zoom and other teleconferencing platforms might not be as secure and private as users believe, after reports of Zoombombing, where bad actors barge into a digital meeting to disrupt the events. The U.S. Senate has also reportedly warned lawmakers against using Zoom.

Despite reports, 49 percent of adults said they havent heard anything about the FBIs Zoombombing warning, and 57 percent believe their calls are secure. But nearly half (48 percent) are still at least somewhat concerned that their calls could be hacked.

Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, an advocacy group focused on digital rights, said in the time of social distancing, its unrealistic to have people completely abandon video conferencing services. But that doesnt mean security and privacy for those calls arent important.

With the whole world moving online during this crisis, it helps people think about how real these threats are, Greer said. Theyre like, Well maybe Im not super worried about the NSA spying on my phone calls, but I would rather that my conversation with my therapist not be leaked on the internet.

Last week, Fight for the Future launched a campaign calling on Zoom to default to using end-to-end encryption for all conversations on the platform, saying that until that happens, little can stop law enforcement agencies, hackers and harassers from accessing its content by exploiting vulnerabilities in the software.

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More Than Half of Adults Say Their Video Calls Are Secure, Despite Hacking Concerns - Morning Consult