Privacy Chief Warns Of Video Conference Risks

Privacy Commissioner Stephen Wong has warned Hong Kong people using video-conferencing tools to keep business or education going during the coronavirus outbreak to beware or risks to their data.

Wong was commenting after reports emerged that users of the Zoom platform, which has been downloaded millions of times as worldwide anti-virus measures took hold, may have had their data transferred to third parties.

He said he understood Zoom had taken remedial steps to rectify the mistake, but added: "There might be other apps, and the same concern is still there in that the security of data must be ensured.

"We must make sure that the app has some kind of clear guidelines and information provided for any use of misuse of the data. The users should be well informed of all of this before they register or apply for the application."

Zoom has become immensely popular as a platform for online schooling, meetings and press conferences.

However, Zoom founder and chief executive Eric Yuan said late on Wednesday that the company would be "shifting all our engineering resources to focus on our biggest trust, safety, and privacy issues" after a series of complaints.

Yuan said Zoom would work with third-party experts and users on a review "to understand and ensure the security of all of our new consumer use cases" and step up a "bug bounty" programme to find security weaknesses.

The move came after the FBI highlighted the problem of "Zoombombing" by hackers or uninvited guests who harass Zoom video conferences with hate speech or pornography.

Zoom saw US downloads surge by 252 per cent in a week to 4.2 million during the week of March 16 – when strict stay-at-home measures began being rolled out across America – according to research firm Sensor Tower. (RTHK/AFP)