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“Zoom is the LinkedIn of FaceTime, but more 1994,” Oregon business attorney Patrick Bryson added to the conversation.” “OK, then Houseparty is Craigslist wearing a Skype t-shirt,” Lutskovsky concluded. “ Microsoft Teams, Skype, GoToMeeting, they all have their own problems,” Portland-based software developer Boris Lutskovsky told me during a conference call on this topic this week. And while Zoom went from spotlight to hot seat seemingly overnight, it’s far from the only video call app people are complaining about. He said daily meetings on Zoom went from 10-million worldwide in December, to 200-million per day in March. Usage of Zoom has ballooned overnight,” he wrote. Around midnight last night, Founder Eric Yuan posted a message to users too. The company updated its blog with a detailed how-to, clarified it’s encryption capabilities, and posted dozens of support pages walking you through it all. You can adjust settings to keep crashers out of your Zoom video chats. It happened to my daughter in the first five minutes of her first University lecture via Zoom this week, and it was so disruptive the professor canceled class. Hackers scream racist slurs, put up porn, use new logins to spread malware, and make a twisted game out of it all. Look up “zoom bombing” and you’ll see it in action. The FBI is warning people about trolls hijacking public video teleconferences in progress – mainly classes, church services, town hall, and AA meetings so far.
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We’re using them for everything from collaborating with colleagues and connecting with classmates to celebrating birthdays, baby showers, and even weddings.
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Instead of heading out the door to work or school, even the most non-tech-savvy among us are firing-up chat apps like Zoom, Hangouts, and Skype on computers and mobile devices. Video calls are an absolute lifeline for most of us stuck at home in social-distancing limbo right now. Watch Video: Facebook debuts standalone Messenger for Desktop for Mac and PC
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