Zoom has announced it will integrate Zoom for Home with a range of smart displays by the end of the year. It expects Zoom on Portal from Facebook to be available in September. Both Amazon Echo Show and Google Nest Hub Max will be available by the end of 2020.
Oded Gal, Chief Product Officer at Zoom, said: “We’re excited to bring Zoom to these popular devices. It’s more apparent than ever that people are looking for easy-to-use displays for their video communications needs, both professionally and personally.”
Who is Zoom aiming this at?
Employees working from home and schools moving to remote teaching have boosted the use of video conferencing and collaboration tools. It has also opened up the market for more smart devices that allow access to those tools. Zoom is taking advantage of that and sees an opportunity to expand off the computer.
The use of devices to run the software will appeal to parents. Most of the devices have parental controls that are relatively simple to use. For those who don’t want to use a computer, putting Zoom on these devices, allows them to keep in touch with the rest of their family.
However, the bigger market and the more lucrative market is not families. It is remote workers. When Zoom for Home launched in July, it positioned it as a tool for remote workers. It said that IT admins would be able to manage the devices through the Zoom admin portal. That management allows them to do remote provisioning and updates.
Don’t ignore the security challenges
Zoom has had a tough year when it comes to cybersecurity. It has had to scramble and update its code several times to fix vulnerabilities in its software. It has also created a new term, Zoombombing which refers to unexpected intrusions into a video conference. Despite this, it has won a lot of business customers, especially SMEs.
But extending the software to Assistant-enabled smart displays brings a new challenge. The IT admin support for Zoom from Home does not allow them to lock down smart devices. There is no ability to prevent users from installing third-party apps, even when the device is owned and provided by the employer.
Third-party apps, even the device manufacturers, regularly scan for cookies. They track what the user is doing with the device and use that to create profiles for advertising. What is not clear is how Zoom will protect user and company data in its app. Will its app be secure against attempts to listen in to calls? Will third-party apps be able to intercept any recordings made by the user?
Last year, Common Sense took a look at Facebook Portal’s privacy and security features. The results were not good news. It highlighted issues with data collection, user tracking and behavioural ads. Organisations supplying devices to employees would want to turn that off, but they can’t. This is why protection of calls, user data and calendar data by Zoom is essential.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
After its problems earlier this year, Zoom has done more than most app vendors to improve its product. That doesn’t mean it is there yet, just that its security awareness is high. Part of its problem was scaling and coping with the explosion in new users.
What it is doing here is making sure it can continue that growth in users by making itself available on a lot of assistant-enabled smart devices. It’s a good move and one that will win it more users and put more pressure on its main competitors. However, it hasn’t really delivered on its promises to IT admins when it comes to the management of smart devices. It also needs to look at what it can reasonably do in terms of security when the enterprise does not own the devices.
As the various smart devices appear, Zoom will need to add the necessary controls for businesses. If not, it runs the risk of suffering more problems over its security, and that’s not a good business decision.
