Zoom, Houseparty apps: The lockdown situation and people working from home have led to video conferencing becoming critical for the ones in the corporate sector to remain in contact with their counterparts. Zoom is the app that most people seem to have adopted quite rapidly to hold video conferences.

Another app that has become popular is Houseparty, a social video sharing app that permits you to chat with friends on video and have fun.

Video conferencing apps Zoom and Houseparty have climbed to the top of the download charts onGoogle Play Store 

Zoom, a professional video conference app, has become the most-downloaded Android app in India and currently has over 50 million downloads on play store.

Houseparty, a less formal video chatting app, allows users to enjoy virtual house parties, offering games, and other interactive features. It provides users with Rooms that can be locked to limit conversations or can be left open for strangers to join. Houseparty downloads have soared to 10 million-plus, from 651,694 recorded on March 24, 2020.

However, many are questioning the safety of these apps after rumors of hacked accounts circulated on social media.

Zoom is reported to have a bug that can be abused intentionally to leak information of users to third parties. The app is also accused of falsely claiming calls are end-to-end encrypted when they are not.

Tech website Motherboard had earlier reported that the Zoom app shares user information with Facebook irrespective of whether a user has an account on Facebook or not. This is because the app uses a software development kit of Facebook and has certain agreements with it. 

There are also reports that Zoom doesn’t offer end-to-end encryption (E2EE), which means that Zoom can even access video and audio of users.

Meanwhile, users have lodged complaints that Houseparty has a vulnerability that permits hacking of user’s other app accounts and their personal information like emails, online banking details, etc., which can be stolen by the hacker.

However, Both apps have denied allegations of security threats. Houseparty has even cried foul.

The way most apps operate is they spell out clear privacy policy and get the users to agree to the terms of use clauses. There they do mention that the users’ data may be collected etc. How this data is used or with whom it is shared remains a mystery. 

The European General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) are quite stringent and if someone takes up the Houseparty issue to the authorities there, it could spell some trouble for the app.