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How the Zoom macOS installer does its job without you clicking ‘install’

(twitter.com)
796 points _Microft | 7 comments | 31 Mar 20 11:41 UTC | HN request time: 0.58s | source | bottom
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tambourine_man ◴[31 Mar 20 17:08 UTC] No.22739735[source]▶
Zoom's got a tradition of being, let's put it like this, way too clever for everyone's own good.

See previous “lets install a server on this Mac that is not removed when you uninstall the app and leaves your camera open to the entire internet” for more examples.

I use it on a VM, I suggest you do it too.

replies(3): >>22741425 #>>22742487 #>>22742581 #
elevenoh ◴[31 Mar 20 21:05 UTC] No.22742581[source]▶
Best zoom alternative?
replies(5): >>22742631 #>>22742784 #>>22743115 #>>22745698 #>>22755591 #
1. luto ◴[31 Mar 20 21:11 UTC] No.22742631[source]▶
Jitsi, Google Meet, bigbluebutton -- anything can runs in a browser tab and is more or less confined within it.
replies(4): >>22742874 #>>22745377 #>>22745524 #>>22745738 #
2. Aachen ◴[31 Mar 20 21:34 UTC] No.22742874[source]▶
Don't know bigbluebutton but at least among Jitsi and Google Meet, Wire is an alternative that is open source and end to end encrypted. They just don't make it easy to host your own, for that I guess Jitsi is the best way to go.
3. behnamoh ◴[01 Apr 20 03:33 UTC] No.22745377[source]▶
But how do they remain in business? I'm interested in knowing how say, Jitsi, earns money off of it.
replies(1): >>22746408 #
4. throwaway1777 ◴[01 Apr 20 04:01 UTC] No.22745524[source]▶
Zoom works in the browser
5. adtac ◴[01 Apr 20 04:38 UTC] No.22745738[source]▶
I wouldn't be surprised if Zoom suddenly started exploiting browser zero days to force install things "for your own good"
replies(1): >>22746112 #
6. saagarjha ◴[01 Apr 20 05:55 UTC] No.22746112[source]▶
Good thing that this is somewhat difficult to do ;)
7. oehtXRwMkIs ◴[01 Apr 20 07:04 UTC] No.22746408[source]▶
Its wikipedia article describes its funding. It's basically a combination of sponsorships and paid employees working on it.