Google has banned employees from using the popular video conferencing application Zoom on company devices because of security concerns, according to a report from BuzzFeed News.
Zoom has grown in popularity after a surge in usage among universities and workers in light of social distancing measures being implemented to combat the coronavirus around the globe. However, over the past month security vulnerabilities discovered within the application have led to a number of companies banning its usage. (RELATED: ‘If You Don’t Want More Body Bags’: World Health Organization Director Hits Back At Trump)
“We have long had a policy of not allowing employees to use unapproved apps for work that are outside of our corporate network,” a Google spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. “Recently, our security team informed employees using Zoom Desktop Client that it will no longer run on corporate computers as it does not meet our security standards for apps used by our employees. Employees who have been using Zoom to stay in touch with family and friends can continue to do so through a web browser or via mobile.”
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 18: Zoom founder Eric Yuan (Photo by Kena Betancur/Getty Images)
Researchers found traffic, including those from North America, were being routed through China leading to the Taiwanese government banning the remote conferencing service, the BBC reports. The company is also facing a lawsuit in California for allegedly giving away the data of users improperly to companies such as Facebook.
“The unique advertising identifier allows companies to target the user with advertisements,” the lawsuit reads, according to CBS. “This information is sent to Facebook by Zoom regardless of whether the user has an account with Facebook.”
In response, Zoom hired a former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos on Wednesday to upgrade user privacy and the company’s CEO vowed to increase the applications security “even at the cost of multiple clicks.”