"Since releasing the draft design of Zoom’s end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on May 22, we have engaged with civil liberties organizations, our CISO council, child safety advocates, encryption experts, government representatives, our own users, and others to gather their feedback on this feature. We have also explored new technologies to enable us to offer E2EE to all tiers of users, Zoom CEO, Eric Yuan wrote in a blog post on the company's site.
The company originally announced its E2EE platform in May, but followed the announcement with news that the service would only be available to paid subscription users. Following a backlash over the announcement the company backtracked on the decision this week.
"We are also pleased to share that we have identified a path forward that balances the legitimate right of all users to privacy and the safety of users on our platform. This will enable us to offer E2EE as an advanced add-on feature for all of our users around the globe – free and paid – while maintaining the ability to prevent and fight abuse on our platform," Yuan wrote.
According to the company, the early beta of the E2EE feature will be released in July 2020 and will be an optional feature. Account administrators can enable and disable the E2EE at the account and group level.