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<title>Malware in Online Conferencing
- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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<h2>Malware in Online Conferencing</h2>
<div class="infobox">
<hr class="full-width" />
<p>Nonfree (proprietary) software is very often malware (designed to
mistreat the user). Nonfree software is controlled by its developers,
which puts them in a position of power over the users; <a
href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html">that is the
basic injustice</a>. The developers and manufacturers often exercise
that power to the detriment of the users they ought to serve.</p>
<p>This typically takes the form of malicious functionalities.</p>
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<p>If you know of an example that ought to be in this page but isn't
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to inform us. Please include the URL of a trustworthy reference or (削除) two (削除ここまで) (追記) two,
preferably in English, (追記ここまで) to serve as specific substantiation.</p>
</div>
<div class="column-limit" id="malware-in-online-conferencing"></div>
<ul class="blurbs">
(追記) <!-- Copied from workshop/mal.rec. Do not edit in malware-in-online-conferencing.html. -->
<li id="M202505190">
<!--#set var="DATE" value='<small class="date-tag">2025-05</small>'
--><!--#echo encoding="none" var="DATE" -->
<p>Microsoft Teams has been <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/may/19/nsw-education-department-caught-unaware-after-microsoft-teams-began-collecting-students-biometric-data">
collecting voice and face data</a>
from students of an Australian school, to feed the CoPilot
chatbot. It took the school network administrators a
whole month to realize what was happening, and disable this
malfeature. It was obviously beyond their imagination that
Microsoft could have <a
href="https://learn.microsoft.com/microsoftteams/rooms/voice-and-face-recognition#admin-settings">
made biometric data collection the default</a> in Teams!</p>
<p>Let's hope legislators and regulatory agencies all over the world
will quickly put a stop to this sort of outrageous practice.</p>
<p>In any case people would be better off switching to a free-software
replacement such as Jitsi Meet for medium-size groups, or Big Blue
Button for larger ones. Many public instances are available, and
groups of users can also set up their own servers.</p>
</li>
<!-- Copied from workshop/mal.rec. Do not edit in malware-in-online-conferencing.html. -->
<li id="M202502280">
<!--#set var="DATE" value='<small class="date-tag">2025-02</small>'
--><!--#echo encoding="none" var="DATE" -->
<p><a
href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/on-may-5-microsofts-skype-will-shut-down-for-good/">
Microsoft is shutting down Skype</a> on May 5th, 2025. As with other
tethered proprietary programs, users have to rely on servers that are
controlled by the developer. When these servers shut down, the service
disappears. Instead of migrating to the service that Microsoft suggests
as a replacement, Skype users should regain control of their
communications by switching to one that is based on free software.
<a href="https://jitsi.org/jitsi-meet/">Jitsi Meet</a>, for example, is
appropriate for small video meetings. Anyone can set up a Jitsi server
and let other people use it, and indeed many of these are available
around the world.</p>
</li>
<!-- Copied from workshop/mal.rec. Do not edit in malware-in-online-conferencing.html. --> (追記ここまで)
<li id="M202104090">
<!--#set var="DATE" value='<small class="date-tag">2021-04</small>'
--><!--#echo encoding="none" var="DATE" -->
<p>A zero-day vulnerability in Zoom which <a
href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/critical-zoom-vulnerability-triggers-remote-code-execution-without-user-input/">can
be used to launch remote code execution (RCE) attacks</a> has been
disclosed by researchers. The researchers demonstrated a three-bug
attack chain that caused an RCE on a target machine, all this without
any form of user interaction.</p>
</li>
(追記) <!-- Copied from workshop/mal.rec. Do not edit in malware-in-online-conferencing.html. --> (追記ここまで)
<li id="M202012190">
<!--#set var="DATE" value='<small class="date-tag">2020-12</small>'
--><!--#echo encoding="none" var="DATE" -->
<p><a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/18/zoom-helped-china-surveillance/">
A Zoom executive carried out snooping and censorship for
(削除) China</a>.</p> (削除ここまで) (追記) the Chinese
government</a>.</p> (追記ここまで)
<p>This abuse of Zoom's power shows how dangerous that power is. The
root problem is not the surveillance and censorship, but rather the
power that Zoom has. It gets that power partly from the use of its
server, but also partly from the nonfree client program.</p>
</li>
(追記) <!-- Copied from workshop/mal.rec. Do not edit in malware-in-online-conferencing.html. --> (追記ここまで)
<li id="M202011090">
<!--#set var="DATE" value='<small class="date-tag">2020-11</small>'
--><!--#echo encoding="none" var="DATE" -->
<p>According to FTC, the
company behind the Zoom conferencing software <a
href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/11/zoom-lied-to-users-about-end-to-end-encryption-for-years-ftc-says/">has
lied to users about its end-to-end encryption</a> for years, at least
since 2016.</p>
<p>People can use free (as in freedom) programs such as <a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Jitsi">Jitsi</a> or <a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/BigBlueButton">BigBlueButton</a>,
better still if installed in a server controlled by the users.</p>
</li>
(追記) <!-- Copied from workshop/mal.rec. Do not edit in malware-in-online-conferencing.html. --> (追記ここまで)
<li id="M202009270">
<!--#set var="DATE" value='<small class="date-tag">2020-09</small>'
--><!--#echo encoding="none" var="DATE" -->
<p>Many employers are using nonfree
software, including videoconference software, to <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/27/shirking-from-home-staff-feel-the-heat-as-bosses-ramp-up-remote-surveillance">
surveil and monitor staff working at home</a>. If the program reports
whether you are “active,” that is in effect a malicious
surveillance feature.</p>
</li>
(追記) <!-- Copied from workshop/mal.rec. Do not edit in malware-in-online-conferencing.html. --> (追記ここまで)
<li id="M202006120">
<!--#set var="DATE" value='<small class="date-tag">2020-06</small>'
--><!--#echo encoding="none" var="DATE" -->
<p>The company behind Zoom does not only deny
users' computer freedom by developing this piece
of nonfree software, it also violates users' civil rights by <a
href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/12/21288995/zoom-blocking-feature-chinese-government-censorship">banning
events and censoring users</a> to serve the agenda of governments.</p>
<p>Freedom respecting programs such as <a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Jitsi">Jitsi</a> or <a
href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/BigBlueButton">BigBlueButton</a>
can be used instead, better still if installed in a server controlled
by its users.</p>
</li>
(追記) <!-- Copied from workshop/mal.rec. Do not edit in malware-in-online-conferencing.html. --> (追記ここまで)
<li id="M202004301">
<!--#set var="DATE" value='<small class="date-tag">2020-04</small>'
--><!--#echo encoding="none" var="DATE" -->
<p>Proprietary programs Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and WebEx <a
(削除) href="https://www.consumerreports.org/video-conferencing-services/videoconferencing-privacy-issues-google-microsoft-webex/">are (削除ここまで)
(追記) href="https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics-computers/video-conferencing-services/videoconferencing-privacy-issues-google-microsoft-webex-a7383469308/">are (追記ここまで)
collecting user's personal and identifiable data</a> including how long
a call lasts, who's participating in the call, and the IP addresses
of everyone taking part. From experience, this can even harm users
physically if those companies hand over data to governments.</p>
</li>
(追記) <!-- Copied from workshop/mal.rec. Do not edit in malware-in-online-conferencing.html. --> (追記ここまで)
<li id="M202003260">
<!--#set var="DATE" value='<small class="date-tag">2020-03</small>'
--><!--#echo encoding="none" var="DATE" -->
<p>The Apple iOS version of Zoom <a
href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7e599/zoom-ios-app-sends-data-to-facebook-even-if-you-dont-have-a-facebook-account">is
sending users' data to Facebook</a> even if the user doesn't have
a Facebook account. According to the article, Zoom and Facebook
don't even mention this surveillance on their privacy policy page,
making this an obvious violation of people's privacy even in their
own terms.</p>
</li>
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