Why won’t Zoom use end-to-end encryption on free calls?

As it increased in popularity due to the coronavirus pandemic, Zoom has come under fire in recent months for the lack of security features on its video chat platform. The company has been working to fix those issues, including an end-to end encryption effort. Right now, Zoom calls are only encrypted while the data is traveling from one end device to another — it is not encrypted at those destinations as well.

Zoom announced earlier this year that it was working on bringing end-to-end encryption to the platform. However, Digital Trends reports that company CEO Eric Yaun recently told investors in a Q1 earnings call that end-to-end encryption would only be available for paid and enterprise-level users.

That means that nothing will change, as far as encryption goes, for anyone who uses a free Zoom account. According to Yuan, this is so that the company can work with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to locate Zoombombers and other bad actors who use the platform for malicious intent.