Zoom's founder Eric Yuan has apologised for the video calling app having "fallen short of the community’s privacy and security expectations" and has said the company is pausing feature updates to work on supporting a "much broader set of users who are utilizing our product in a myriad of unexpected ways".

This includes the updating of the company's privacy policy, releasing fixes for security flaws and the removal of Facebook integration in the iOS app that was collecting unnecessary information about users. There is also clarification around what is (and what isn't) end-to-end encrypted. 

The company has now also issued a fix for a previous vulnerability.

The coronavirus pandemic has seen users flock to Zoom as people hold online meetings with large numbers of participants, with classes, church services and pub quizzes galore now taking place over the app. The userbase has grown hugely from 10 million daily meeting participants in late December to 200 million now. 

Yuan said the company is massively improving its training information around the product and cutting customer support wait times. Yuan previously said how the company was addressing the issue of Zoombombing

The growth of Zoom has highlighted how competitors like Microsoft with Skype and Google with Duo and Hangouts Meet have failed to capitalise on a situation where demand for video calling and conferencing is bigger than it's ever been. And with Zoom primarily a business-oriented app, the move has clearly taken everyone by surprise. 

"During this time of isolation, we at Zoom feel incredibly privileged to be in a position to help you stay connected," says the statement from Yuan. "For the past several weeks, supporting this influx of users has been a tremendous undertaking and our sole focus. We have strived to provide you with uninterrupted service and the same user-friendly experience that has made Zoom the video-conferencing platform of choice for enterprises around the world, while also ensuring platform safety, privacy, and security."

"However, we did not design the product with the foresight that, in a matter of weeks, every person in the world would suddenly be working, studying, and socializing from home. We now have a much broader set of users who are utilizing our product in a myriad of unexpected ways, presenting us with challenges we did not anticipate when the platform was conceived.

"These new, mostly consumer use cases have helped us uncover unforeseen issues with our platform. Dedicated journalists and security researchers have also helped to identify pre-existing ones. We appreciate the scrutiny and questions we have been getting – about how the service works, about our infrastructure and capacity, and about our privacy and security policies. These are the questions that will make Zoom better, both as a company and for all its users.

"We take them extremely seriously. We are looking into each and every one of them and addressing them as expeditiously as we can. We are committed to learning from them and doing better in the future."

There will also be a weekly security webinar