SME Times News Bureau | 04 Jul, 2020
While video conferencing app, Zoom has a 40-minute limit on group
meetings in its basic or free plan, JioMeet, soft launched on Google
Playstore and iOS on Thursday, has a 24-hour limit on group meetings,
absolutely free.
Based on
rate card of Zoom below where $15 per month is the charge for more than
40 minute meeting time (which is equivalent to $180 on an annual basis)
to the host. In an apple-to-apple comparison, JioMeet is providing the
same functionality and more, free of cost. This translates to Rs 13,500
of spoiler savings for a host per year.
Zoom in a statement on
JioMeet said, "Zoom has experienced intense competition since it was
established in 2011 and yet we have become the platform of choice for
millions of participants around the world. We know what it takes to
become the unified communications platform we are today, including the
immense amount of work and focus required to create our frictionless
user experience, sophisticated security, and scalable architecture."
The
zero restriction on time limit targets is disrupting the Zoom digital
experience. For instance in education, with 24-hour free JioMeet
sessions, teachers will not be required to cut short their classes as
they are forced to using Zoom. Similarly student won't be restricted to
limit their questions and this may enhance the learning experience in
both formal and informal education.
Friends, alumni networks and
relatives will now not need to be caught in the "tyranny of 40 minutes,"
the free time allowed by Zoom runs out.
National and
international seminars will experience complete migration a similar
limitation because without any entry fee they can host their research -
and conversation can spill over beyond 40 minutes easily for mutual
benefit.
Sales demonstrations, especially, say, SMEs, kiranas,
will be disrupted leading to enabling e-commerce. Likewise, brokers and
any others needing constant and prolonged group video connectivity.
Collaborative
cultural, social, musical, spiritual and events can be held which are
livelihood source of performers and continue to keep social structure
and fabric alive. Likewise democratic events.
Besides a price tag
of zero, in terms of features and functionality JioMeet score on
advantages. In a Zoom meeting, users can't expand a participant's video.
In JioMeet meetings users can expand any participant's video or Shared
Screen's video by a double tap.
JioMeet has 2 advanced meeting
settings over and above Zoom options. Allow participants only from my
organization: If enabled only users from host's organsation (eg tcs.com
or hll.com) can join that meeting. No potential snoops from other IDs.
It
does not allow guest users. If enabled every user will be required to
Sign Up before joining the meeting hence restricting anonymous users
from joining the call.
Unlike Zoom, JioMeet users can switch from
one device to another without dropping out of the call. Zoom allows
Sign Up only with Email ID. JioMeet allows sign up with Email Id and
mobile number.
Inside the call, Zoom shows 4 participants at a
time on a single mobile screen (for others, users need to scroll through
multiple pages). JioMeet allows 9 active participants on single mobile
screen.
At a time when Chinese companies are under scrutiny
worldwide, Chinese-American founder, Eric Yuan, has said that Zoom is
not Chinese.
The Zoom video conferencing application for meetings
is not a safe platform, the Cyber Coordination Centre (CCC) of the
Ministry of Home Affairs has warned in an advisory on April 12.
In
the advisory, issued on April 12, it is mentioned that "secure use of
Zoom meeting platform is for private individuals and not for use of
government offices or official purpose".
The government said that
cert-in on the same lines had been informed on February 6 and March 30
this year clarifying that "Zoom is not a safe platform".
In a set
of guidelines for the safety of private users, the CCC division of the
MHA mentioned that "those private individuals who still would like to
use Zoom for private purpose" should follow certain guidelines like
prevention of unauthorised entry in conference room and unauthorised
participant to carry out malicious on terminals of others in the
conference.
The advisory also suggested to "avoid 'DOS' attacks by restricting users through passwords and access grant".
CERT,
the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team under the Ministry of
Electronics has issued two high severity ratings advisories on Zoom app.
In
an advisory on April 2, it called out multiple vulnerabilities in Zoom
video conferencing application. CERT said these vulnerabilities could
allow an attacker to gain elevated privileges or obtain sensitive
information on the targeted system.
In a March 30 advisory, CERT
said insecure usage of the platform could allow cyber criminals to
access sensitive information such as meeting details and conversations.
The
US Defense Department, Pentagon has also warned about, "Zoombombings".
On April 13, it was decided that Zoom is now officially off-limits to
Defense Department personnel due to increased security concerns.
Service members, contractors and civilians can no longer use Zoom in an official capacity, the Pentagon announced.
This
followed a warning from the Federal Bureau of Investigations last week
stating the video meeting app has seen an increase in uninvited
participants infiltrating sessions -- a phenomenon known as
"Zoombombing".