Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world have issued curfews restricting citizens from leaving their homes to work or to shop. Consequently, this has led to the rapid rise of remote working, remote education and e-commerce.
And as remote working and remote education becomes prevalent, demand for teleconferencing software and related tools has also undergone an explosive boom as users are now relying on them for daily activities. However, many are now concerned about the security of these teleconferencing software.
In the age of the Internet, many communication services and software require users to give up their privacy to access their service. For example, users often have to read through and agree to lengthy agreements that include terms to allow the service provider to access and share their personal data or browsing footprint before users can use their service. It is because of situations like this that data safety is becoming a matter of concern for many users. Whether it is personal data, data mentioned during the conference, or confidential data transferred using the software, doubts about the safety of the transport protocol or the data storage environments are now becoming a point of contention.
Founded in 2015, Canadian startup Tauria believes that the privacy and security of users are its foremost priority. The company seeks to bring privacy back to the users through its AES 256-compliant, military-grade, quantum-resistant encrypted virtual workspace. Unlike other teleconferencing software, the virtual workspace provided by Tauria guarantees complete privacy for all data sent by the user to Tauria data centers. In other words, only the intended recipients have access to his or her messages, video/audio conference, and files.
However, surging demand in the teleconferencing software market has also driven competition to become fiercer than ever before. Besides offerings from tech giants like Microsoft and Google, Zoom has also seen a meteoric rise in popularity. Tauria has observed that when companies realize that WFH and hybrid working modes are here to stay, they will start seeking alternatives to existing solutions such as Zoom and Cisco. This focus on user privacy and security is only further compounded by the recent string of security incidents. It is for this reason that Tauria remains optimistic about the company's future development prospects, believing that their insistence on convenience and absolute privacy will become their major selling point.
Tauria currently has users in Canada, the US, Brazil, but is most successful in the European market. Tauria explains that the European region is considered a pioneer in the advocacy of digital privacy protection thanks to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which continues to be the golden standard for data protection practices worldwide. Tauria also believes that the rippling effects of the China-U.S. Trade war coupled with Taiwan's ICT industry focus make their software a perfect fit to meet the supply chain data safety demands of Taiwanese businesses. In response to the surge of COVID-19 cases in Taiwan in May, Tauria started the "Taiwan We Can Help" campaign which offers "free access to Tauria video conference and messaging" in June. To date, Tauria has been used by more than 100 organizations in Taiwan.
Looking ahead, Tauria remains dedicated to ensuring communication privacy for all of its users while continuing to expand its feature set to create a product that is truly accessible to all. Tauria also hopes to be a force of disruption to the market, calling on tech companies to give the right of choice back to users and develop better products going forward. As for the Taiwanese market, Tauria will continue to expand its customer base in the region while recruiting local talents to join the company.