Do you want to connect to a Zoom meeting in the browser without downloading its app? Then check out this browser plug-in, which will shortcut the needless friction. This videoconferencing company has baked into the process of moving yourself of its web client.
Zoom has a zero download option. It just hides it truly well, wanting to push individuals to download its application. It is irritating, no doubt. Some have even called it reckless, during the coronavirus pandemic, given what number of individuals are abruptly compelled to telecommute where they might be utilizing secured corporate workstations that do not permit them to download applications.
A software engineer, Arkadiy Tetelman, now the head of appsec/infrasec for US mobile bank Chime was also one among the individuals who got irritated by Zoom concealing the join by means of a browser. So he set up this Zoom Redirector browser extension that “straightforwardly diverts any meeting links to utilize Zoom’s browser-based web client,” as he puts it on Github.
It kills me that Zoom intentionally hides the “join from your browser” link, so here’s a small (20 line) browser extension that transparently redirects Zoom links to use their web client: https://t.co/ZeYmmS2R2A https://t.co/50f6ak4i9x
— Arkadiy Tetelman (@arkadiyt) March 22, 2020
“While joining a Zoom meeting, the ‘join from your browser’ link is hidden intentionally,” he warned. “This browser extension solves this problem by transparently redirecting any meeting links to use Zoom’s browser-based web client.”
As of now, the extension is available for Chrome and Firefox. The submissions are listed as pending for Edge and Opera.
Some others have noted that it is possible to perform a redirect manually, by adding your meeting ID to a Zoom web client link — zoom.us/wc/join/{your-meeting-id}. But if you are asked to join a bunch of Zoom meetings, then it is a lot more convenient to have a browser plug-in instead of copying and pasting meeting IDs.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has powered the utilization of videoconferencing, Zoom seems, to be an early beneficiary — with the application getting a charge out of a viral boom (in the computerized feeling of the term) recently that has been incredible for-profit development (if not promptly at its offer cost when it detailed its Q4 bounty). It is estimating a guard year.
Another area where the organization has confronted basic consideration lately identifies with client privacy.
Throughout the end of the week, another Twitter client, with the handle @ouren, posted a critical thread that accumulated a huge number of preferences and retweets — specifying how Zoom can follow the action on the client’s PC, remembering reaping information for what different projects are running and which window the client has in the forefront.
The thread incorporated a connection to an EFF article about the risks of privacy of remote working devices, including Zoom.
“The host of a Zoom call has the ability to monitor the activities of participants while screen-sharing,” the digital rights group cautioned. “This function is accessible in Zoom adaptation 4.0 and higher. If attendees of a meeting do not have the Zoom video window in focus during a call where the host is screen-sharing, after 30 seconds, the host can see indicators next to each participant’s name indicating that the Zoom window is not active.”
Given the abrupt spike in consideration around security, Zoom chipped into the conversation with an official reaction, by writing that the “attention tracking feature is off by default.”
“On enabling, hosts can tell if participants have the App open and active when the screen-sharing feature is in use,” it added. “It will not track any aspects of your audio or video or other applications on your window.”
Everyone working remotely:
ZOOM monitors the activity on your computer and collects data on the programs running and captures which window you have focus on.
If you manage the calls, you can monitor what programs users on the call are running as well. It’s fucked up.
— Wolfgang ʬ (@Ouren) March 21, 2020
However, the company did not reveal why it offers such a privacy hostile feature as “attention tracking” in the first place.
Leave a Reply