Microsoft Teams vs Zoom for Meetings — Heads up, in Canada and particularly BC, this shit matters
As businesses and organizations scramble to have remote meetings and chats during this crazy time, there are lots of great tools available with Microsoft Teams and Zoom being the two most popular choices.
Pay attention BC Government and BC Businesses
BC Government had legislation changed late in 2019 to allow for use of Cloud Services so long as that data was “at rest” (stored) on Canadian based Cloud Services and appropriate paperwork was shuffled — Security Threat and Risk Assessments and Privacy Impact Assessments.
You can read all about the various legislation stuff here: “Getting Cloudy: A Review of Cloud Legislation in Canada”.
The short version is … if you are a BC Government ministry and you have dotted the appropriate i’s and lowercase j’s, you can then look into services like Office 365 so long as the related services keep data ‘at rest’ in Canada (insider tip: Microsoft Forms and Yammer do not qualify! But for the most part, the rest does).
Further, if you are a business that works with BC Government, having meetings or exchanging files, you need to be following the same rules. Read and understand about BC Freedom of Information and the Cloud
The Canadian Federal Government is going Cloud (and maybe you should too). Read more.
Okay, with the above foundation set it’s time to talk specifics.
Microsoft Teams is Cool Right?
If your organization is using Office 365 and your “Data Location” for Microsoft Teams is in Canada, you are in good shape — carry on! If it isn’t, you may have work to do.
What about Zoom? I love Zoom, it’s so easy!
Sorry folks, I have bad news for you if you are in BC Government or work with them. Zoom stores your chat logs, your video recordings and all files you upload and share in Zoom … in the USA. That’s a big no-no.
How do I know?
We did some digging and asked some questions. Zoom is quite vague about it but with this little bit of recon, it seems clear enough really. Your data (recordings, logs and files) are stored in the US.
Here’s an email from Zoom support, answering our direct question “is our data stored in Canada?”.
And this is from their Privacy Policy at: https://zoom.us/privacy
Transfer and Storage of Personal Data Our Products are generally hosted and operated in the United States (“U.S.”) through Zoom and its service providers, though data may be collected from wherever our users are located. We may transfer your Personal Data to the U.S., to any Zoom affiliate worldwide, or to third parties acting on our behalf for the purposes of processing or storage. Where local law requires, we may store data locally in order to comply with global regulations. By using any of our Products or providing any Personal Data for any of the purposes stated above, you consent to the transfer and storage of your Personal Data, whether provided by you or obtained through a third party, to the U.S. as set forth herein, including the hosting of such Personal Data on U.S. servers.
Finally, I had a Zoom recording of a chat with friends the other day and traced the download link. While not 100% scientific (they may have reverse proxies obscuring the truth). Zoom definitely knows I’m from Canada based on my signup/registration.
