I have sessions with patients and therapists all over the world and for these online sessions I use exclusively the software "Zoom". This software is easy to use for all participants and it is the only one that meets my requirements for visualization and presentation of complex matters. It is reliable and high-performance and I hardly have any technical problems during my sessions. Caused by the crisis caused by the Corona virus, suddenly and to an unexpected extent new user segments were added, and the system, originally developed for business communication, was used by school classes, clubs, and private individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds and was therefore immediately an interesting playing field for hackers. As a result, previously hidden considerable deficiencies in security and data protection became apparent. Zoom reacted immediately after having been made aware of these deficiencies, stopped all development work for the next 3 months and is now concentrating exclusively on eliminating the deficiencies. The deficiencies and the policy for their elimination are described in the document https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/04/01/a-message-to-our-users/. The issue of encryption of conversations, which is very important for me as a therapist who deals with sensitive information each day, is covered in another document https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/04/01/facts-around-zoom-encryption-for-meetings-webinars/. As a result, there is end-to-end encrypted communication if one avoids recording particularly sensitive information.

Zoom has fixed the first, particularly serious deficiencies and I have installed these updates immediately and will also install all following updates immediately. I am confident that the following updates will raise the security level of "Zoom" to a similar level as the comfort, usability and performance it already offers today. I regularly adapt my own settings and my way of managing sessions to the security recommendations and also inform my session partners accordingly. Against this background, I will continue to use " Zoom" as the most important instrument of my online sessions.

Should my session partner not wish to use "Zoom" during an online session, I am always prepared to use e.g. "Skype" for such sessions.

Main information: please install always the latest Zoom updates and use the proposed default settings, as these represent the best security settings.