During this lockdown situation due to the spread of the Covid-19, a lot of people are switching to a variety of video calling apps to help do meetings at home or call a group of friends altogether.
But it is pretty much tiring to look for the best in features of functionality and security and all that in a single app is difficult to find.
Let’s talk about the first video app Zoom that has been used the most for online school/university lectures or for the purpose of some non-private chats and it is considered as the best tool in terms of that but if you’re looking to have some intimate or personal chat with someone then this app isn’t for you as this app has suffered a lot of security and privacy issues.
Another app used by the people during the COVID-19 crisis is Houseparty and in terms of interface and functionality it is pretty cool but if you take a look at its privacy, it isn’t there yet as in this app friend of friends can also crash into your conversations easily.
Some other private video chat apps include Signal but it is more of a one-to-one conversation app instead of group calls and then there’s WhatsApp which also features group calling 8 people at once but then this app is owned by Facebook then is there anything left to support its privacy matter? You know it already.
With all the above-mentioned issues faced in video call apps, the creators of Mozilla Firefox analyzed some best video conferencing apps to use in terms of privacy and other features as well.
Recently, Mozilla published a guide, and researchers helped to find the best 15 apps for users to consider as a tool for video conferencing purposes.
To help the users understand the functionalities and security of the apps, researchers put together a variety of questions to help understand it better and the results are pretty much opposite to our expectations as apps with assumptions of lack of security turn out to be more secure than the so-called secured apps.
Mozilla updated a list of standards to test all video call apps and the researchers of Mozilla judged each video app with at least the Minimum Security Standards of the platform which includes Security updates, Strong passwords, privacy policy, use of encryption and managing vulnerabilities as well.
A total of 12 apps passed the test and met the Minimum Security Standards of Mozilla which included Apple Facetime, Facebook Messenger, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype, Signal, Jitsi Meet, GoTO Meeting, Cisco WebEx and BlueJeans.
3 of the products that didn’t pass the test included Houseparty, Doxy.me and Discord, and the app named Houseparty even let the researchers create an account with password ‘12345’ whereas the app of Discord allowed a longer password to create an account but also less secure like ‘111111’.
Passwords like these are not secure at all and the apps should at least make people create accounts with passwords including a combination of numeric and alphabet characters to make it more secure.
After this revelation by Mozilla, Houseparty made a statement mentioning that the platform is a trusted industry for sure and is trying out various new strategies to make the app more secure for its user data and also stated to its users to use strong passwords. Whereas Discord already updated its settings to prevent the use of easy passwords and passwords already compromised from another service being used.
The Video chat privacy review by Mozilla is a very helpful if you consider it seriously as it clearly helped to point out all the pros and cons of popular video calling apps and it can also mean that so many problems can be fixed as users are now more aware of the problems and can fix it easily.
Overall, the purpose behind this review by Mozilla was to help the users select the best social networking apps according to their needs as Zoom is being considered as the best tool for people with Business calling purposes whereas FaceTime, Signal, and Jisti can be used for the purpose of more private video calls.
Read next: Terms of Services - A Section Often Ignored Because of Its Length (infographic)
But it is pretty much tiring to look for the best in features of functionality and security and all that in a single app is difficult to find.
Let’s talk about the first video app Zoom that has been used the most for online school/university lectures or for the purpose of some non-private chats and it is considered as the best tool in terms of that but if you’re looking to have some intimate or personal chat with someone then this app isn’t for you as this app has suffered a lot of security and privacy issues.
Another app used by the people during the COVID-19 crisis is Houseparty and in terms of interface and functionality it is pretty cool but if you take a look at its privacy, it isn’t there yet as in this app friend of friends can also crash into your conversations easily.
Some other private video chat apps include Signal but it is more of a one-to-one conversation app instead of group calls and then there’s WhatsApp which also features group calling 8 people at once but then this app is owned by Facebook then is there anything left to support its privacy matter? You know it already.
With all the above-mentioned issues faced in video call apps, the creators of Mozilla Firefox analyzed some best video conferencing apps to use in terms of privacy and other features as well.
Recently, Mozilla published a guide, and researchers helped to find the best 15 apps for users to consider as a tool for video conferencing purposes.
To help the users understand the functionalities and security of the apps, researchers put together a variety of questions to help understand it better and the results are pretty much opposite to our expectations as apps with assumptions of lack of security turn out to be more secure than the so-called secured apps.
Mozilla updated a list of standards to test all video call apps and the researchers of Mozilla judged each video app with at least the Minimum Security Standards of the platform which includes Security updates, Strong passwords, privacy policy, use of encryption and managing vulnerabilities as well.
A total of 12 apps passed the test and met the Minimum Security Standards of Mozilla which included Apple Facetime, Facebook Messenger, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype, Signal, Jitsi Meet, GoTO Meeting, Cisco WebEx and BlueJeans.
3 of the products that didn’t pass the test included Houseparty, Doxy.me and Discord, and the app named Houseparty even let the researchers create an account with password ‘12345’ whereas the app of Discord allowed a longer password to create an account but also less secure like ‘111111’.
Passwords like these are not secure at all and the apps should at least make people create accounts with passwords including a combination of numeric and alphabet characters to make it more secure.
After this revelation by Mozilla, Houseparty made a statement mentioning that the platform is a trusted industry for sure and is trying out various new strategies to make the app more secure for its user data and also stated to its users to use strong passwords. Whereas Discord already updated its settings to prevent the use of easy passwords and passwords already compromised from another service being used.
The Video chat privacy review by Mozilla is a very helpful if you consider it seriously as it clearly helped to point out all the pros and cons of popular video calling apps and it can also mean that so many problems can be fixed as users are now more aware of the problems and can fix it easily.
Overall, the purpose behind this review by Mozilla was to help the users select the best social networking apps according to their needs as Zoom is being considered as the best tool for people with Business calling purposes whereas FaceTime, Signal, and Jisti can be used for the purpose of more private video calls.
Read next: Terms of Services - A Section Often Ignored Because of Its Length (infographic)
