TV personality and anti-bullying activist Monica Lewinsky has shared her own "cautionary tale" about the video meeting platform Zoom, which has of late been used widely as people started working remotely during the coronavirus pandemic.
"When zooming on phone, pay extra attention to replying privately vs everyone", she started off her Thursday tweet.
"Was thrilled to share i was still in pj’s sans bra with my TED speaker community", Lewinsky, who took part in "The Price of Shame" talk in 2015 sharing her experience of being in the midst of media storm over the 1998 Clinton-Lewinsky political sex scandal, went on to share.
However, fortunately for her, one user in the thread warned her that private chats are all filed in logs.
"The private messages are still relayed in the meeting log. Be careful out there".
"Oh f–k", Lewisky dropped in disarray, as many more issued similar warnings or, like Lewinsky, expressed their disappointment with the news:
Also note: If the host chooses to download the chat, they will download the ENTIRE chat, private convos and all! So be careful of what you say, even in private rooms.
— Vote by Mail 🌹 (@elizabethkozup) June 25, 2020
Yes! Looks like it’s private to the host only, so any of the hosts private convos will be downloaded, but maybe not user to user?
— Vote by Mail 🌹 (@elizabethkozup) June 25, 2020
I’ll probs continue to be cautious about what I say in a zoom chat. You never know!
I just had a heart attack. (The I scrolled down to see it’s only with the host.)
— dylan (@AndersenDylan) June 26, 2020
What? NOOOOOoooooOOOOOooooOOOOOo.
— DeenaSharuk (@DeenaSharuk) June 25, 2020
Fun Fact: All Zoom messages are saved in a transcript and available to the meeting host.
— Erika (@Hairika) June 25, 2020
"Yup and your employer can see all your private Slack messages too if you are using the company server", another weighed in.
"Only if your private message is to the host - if it's to another participant, then those don't get saved", a third offered a correction, making others sigh with relief.
Many, however, went for a bit of humour, sticking to Lewinsky’s not-so-surprising revelation and bringing up the "casual" COVID dress code:
There are people still wearing underwear? I thought we’d all agreed on COVID Casual.
— Geoff (@IamGeofftoo) June 25, 2020
Isn’t this basically standard office attire at this point?
— Amy Leitman 🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@IDontDoGiddy) June 25, 2020
To be honest, we're all still in our PJs without our bras on.
— Vichet Ou - Author (@itsmevichet) June 25, 2020
"At least 15% of them were not wearing pants, so you're OK", one assured.
"... as long as you're wearing a mask, you're aaaalll good too", another shared.