Google, SpaceX to NASA: Top companies, government agencies that banned Zoom

As quickly as Zoom's popularity rose, so did its security woes. Ever since Zoom's skeleton of privacy and security issues were out, the company has been trying to fix its mistakes. It has launched new features which aim to strengthen user privacy, and is regularly updating users on the same.

Zoom may have however caused too much damage as many top companies and government agencies have banned the video conferencing app. Zoom is still used by millions across the globe for online classes, meetings and just group video calls. But it's definitely lost trust among these companies -

One of the first companies to ban the use of Zoom was Elon Musk's SpaceX. This was days after the US law enforcement warned users about the security of Zoom. SpaceX mailed all employees on March 28 saying that Zoom has been disabled with immediate effect.

ALSO READ: Zoom not a safe platform: MHA issues advisory on usage of the app

Google, which can be considered one of Zoom's competitors with its Hangouts Meet, also banned it. Google however banned only the desktop app of Zoom for its employees on the company computers. Google employees can still use Zoom through its mobile apps and browsers.

Standard Chartered became the first major bank to ban Zoom from its employees. The global bank even prohibited employees from using Google Hangouts. It said that Zoom and Hangouts don't offer encryption strong enough like Cisco's Webex, Microsoft Teams or Blue Jeans Network.

German company Siemens also joined the list by sending out an internal circular to employees telling them not to use Zoom for video conferencing.

Government organisations

Taiwan has banned all its government agencies from using Zoom. The German Foreign Ministry also did something similar but it restricted the use of Zoom to only emergency situations and that too in personal computers. The Australian Defence Force has also banned the app after one of its meetings was zoombombed. The United States Senate did not ban Zoom but advised members to use other platforms.

Zoom is widely used for online classes but the app has been by schools in Singapore after meetings were hacked with inappropriate content. New York City also banned schools from using the app. Even NASA has banned its employees from using Zoom.