Google is the latest company to ban employees from using popular video-conferencing app Zoom owing o security concerns according to a BuzzFeed News report.
Zoom which had garnered over 200 million users worldwide in March owing to global shutdowns in light of the coronavirus pandemic has recently been under the scanner for multiple security issues.
Google is not the only company to disable Zoom for its employees. Earlier this month, Elon Musk's SpaceX had also banned employees from using the video conferencing app over security concerns according to a Reuters report.
The Taiwan cabinet on April 8 had asked all its government agencies to stop using products such as Zoom that raise security concerns according to media reports. Furthermore, the app has also been banned by New York City officials for schools who were earlier using the app to facilitate remote classes and sessions, TechCrunch had reported.
Zoom has been in murky waters ever since it witnessed a massive surge in usage. Multiple security and privacy issues have been raised against the app. Most recently, the Washington Post had reported that thousands of personal Zoom videos had been exposed on the open web due to a fault in how Zoom named its videos.
The New York Times earlier this month had reported that a data-mining feature on Zoom had allowed some participants to have access to LinkedIn profile data of other users without their permission or any notification from Zoom.
Furthermore, users of the video calling app have also been facing harassment from hackers interrupting meetings in what has been dubbed as “Zoombombing.” In another instance, tech website Motherboard had published a report last month stating that Zoom had been collecting personal data of the user as they logged on to the app and had been sharing data with Facebook irrespective of whether the user had a Facebook account. This had also landed Zoom in a class-action lawsuit by a user in California.
The company has recently been served with another class-action lawsuit by one of its shareholders, who claimed to have lost money after the company “overstated” its security measures leading its share prices to tank, as per a TechCrunch report .
Zoom CEO Eric S Yuan last week had said that the platform will now be focusing all its resources on improving “safety, and privacy” on its platform for the next 90 days.
The company has also roped in former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos to advise them on security and privacy concerns after facing global backlash as per a Reuters report.
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