Zoom Video Communications Inc. today said that it will make end-to-end encryption available for free users of its service, after previously stating only paid accounts would receive access to the upcoming feature. 

Zoom in April launched an effort to improve cybersecurity practices after researchers found multiple vulnerabilities in its desktop applications. As part of the initiative, the company announced plans to implement end-to-end encryption. Zoom originally planned to make the technology available only to paid users in order to prevent abuse.  

End-to-end encryption makes private data significantly harder to access for external parties by scrambling it before it leaves the user’s device. In the case of virtual meetings, that means even the operator of a videoconferencing platform can’t read the packets flowing through its servers. Zoom initially said that it would limit end-to-end encryption availability to paid customers in a bid to reduce the risk of the feature being abused by bad actors wishing to hide their activities from law enforcement agencies.

The company’s reversal follows criticism over the initial proposal. To address concerns, Zoom has come up a new approach that it believes will enable it to offer end-to-end encryption to all users while still retaining the ability to combat abuse. 

“To make this possible, Free/Basic users seeking access to E2EE will participate in a one-time process that will prompt the user for additional pieces of information, such as verifying a phone number via a text message,” Chief Executive Officer Eric Yuan wrote in a blog post. “We are confident that by implementing risk-based authentication, in combination with our current mix of tools — including our Report a User function — we can continue to prevent and fight abuse.”

The feature will become available as an optional setting turned off by default. One reason users may wish to not to enable it, Yuan detailed, is that turning on the setting will prevent traditional phone lines and certain conference phone systems from dialing into a Zoom meeting.

Zoom aims to start testing an early beta of its end-to-end encryption system next month. The fact that the company is on track to launch the system into beta less than a quarter after committing to building it is likely at least partially thanks to its May acquisition of Keybase Inc., an Andreessen Horowitz-backed encryption chat startup. Yuan stated at the time that the Keybase team was expected to play a “critical part” in the development effort.

Photo: Zoom