The Indian Supreme Court has issued a notice towards the Zoom App on May 22 regarding a security breach. The app is set to be banned until “appropriate legislation” is conceded. The petitioner has also asked for the Government to do a security audit. The government had released an advisory during April where they mentioned users to take precautions and quit using the app due to security issues. The next hearing regarding the case will be held on July 7, according to the Supreme Court’s website.
In a statement released by a Zoom Spokesperson, “Zoom takes user privacy, security, and trust extremely seriously. We have been focused on enhancing our commitment to security and privacy under our 90-day plan announced April 1st, and has made significant progress”.
Zoom is an American company listed on Nasdaq. For nearly a decade Zoom has supported a few of the largest financial service companies, governments, universities, and other large establishments to stay linked securely. Zoom also states that many of the larger establishments have extensively used the app’s services and rely on it.
In India, Zoom had greatly helped businesses, government organizations, communities, and many institutions stay linked during this global pandemic.
The Petition had been filed against Zoom on the following basis:
Application Bugs: The CEO of Zoom had publically apologized for failing to provide a secure platform for its users.
Cyberspace: The extreme use of the app had lead to extreme sharing of information – which in turn could put the security of many users at stake. This was mentioned because the app had already admitted to being ineffective at following security regulations.
Selling Data: Zoom had been selling data to the media giant Facebook for profits during the global pandemic. This was done without the user’s content which caused distrust among users.
No Session Security: The Zoom sessions were not as safe as users could record calls for long durations without permission, which could breach an individual’s security.
Despite the National Cyber Security Policy and Personal Data Protection Bill (2019), there have been breaking of rules by the app in India.
