If you're using an iPhone here's probably why you shouldn't use Zoom

The video conferencing app has taken the world by storm but there's a catch

Zoom has become the most important app on the internet right now. The video-calling app has been downloaded millions of times from PlayStore, App Store and its website, Zoom.us. However, as the popularity of the hitherto unknown app grows, its flaws have begun to reveal.

As late as March 30, the American FBI was looking into cases of people hijacking Zoom meetings to threaten participants or just shout racial slurs. Even though Zoom has released guidelines on how to prevent ‘Zoom bombings’ through blogposts and webinars, the app has another, far more troubling issue.

According to reports Zoom had been advertising itself as using the end-to-end encryption system until it was discovered that it wasn’t. It was only earlier this month that Zoom admitted that didn’t have end-to-end encryption and apologised for the “confusion” it had caused by “incorrectly” suggesting otherwise.

Zoom’s security record has also been somewhat dodgy. Last year it was discovered that Zoom was able to add a user to a call without their permission and another bug in its systems would enable hackers to take over their users’ Mac and hack their webcam and mic.

Even though Zoom says it has released an update that fixes the Mac problem, computer science experts tend to see Zoom with a great deal of suspicion given its history of security issues.

There’s also the matter of Zoom reportedly sending data from its users’ iOS app to Facebook for the purposes of advertising. Reports suggest that it does so even if the user isn’t on Facebook.

These are just some of the reasons why experts are recommending moving away from Zoom to other and more reliable video calling apps such as the Microsoft-owned Skype, which remains a traditional favourite. And if you’re using an iPhone, your most reliable app is, of course, FaceTime