Zoom plans to unveil end-to-end encryption capabilities

On Wednesday, Zoom said it planned to launch end-to-end encryption (E2EE) capabilities from next week.

E2EE will let the company’s users create individual encryption keys that will be used to encode voice or video calls between them and other conference members.

These keys will be stored locally and will not be shared with Zoom servers, which means the videoconferencing company won’t be able to access or interrupt any current E2EE meetings.

Support for such calls will first be part of Zoom clients to be issued next week. To use the new feature, users must update their clients next week and allow support for such calls at the account level.

This green shield will contain a lock if E2EE is active. If the lock is non-existent, the company will use its default AES 256-bit GCM encryption scheme, which the company uses to obtain current communications, but which Zoom can also interrupt.

Nevertheless, the feature won’t function if it’s not also allowed by conference hosts, which also have options at their disposal to restrict calls only for users with E2EE enabled at their account level.

The company said next week’s E2EE rollout is part of a four-stage rollout process that will complete in 2021.

“In Phase 1, all meeting participants must join from the Zoom desktop client, mobile app, or Zoom Rooms,” Zoom said.