The good news is that if you’re not a paying customer but would still like to use Zoom’s service, the company has actually backtracked on their previous approach and have since announced that they will be making end-to-end encryption available to all of their users, not just the ones who are paying for its service.
According to Zoom, “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.”
It was previously argued that one of the reasons why Zoom was only making its encryption available for paying customers is that they wanted to discourage users who might be using their service for spam or malicious activities.