Zoom says it’s in talks with MHA, will provide requisite information

Zoom said it is in talks with the Indian government and will provide requisite information, PTI reported. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) last week had released an advisory asking people to avoid the Zoom app over security issues.

'Zoom is in communications with the Ministry of Home Affairs and is focused on providing the information they need to make informed decisions about their policies,' Zoom Video Communications India Head Sameer Raje told PTI.

Raje said that several global institutions including financial services companies, telecommunication service providers, government agencies have already done security review of the platform and are using it for communication purposes.

Zoom, a video conferencing application, has become popular globally as people are turning to remote working platforms for communication. The platform has seen its user base growing from 10 million to 200 million in the first three months of this year. Zoom is now valued more than market capital of the US' top companies American Airlines, Expedia and Hilton.

Zoom, however, has come under scanner over privacy concerns. Hackers and cyber criminals are targeting the application to infiltrate pubic and private virtual meetings, a phenomenon called Zoombombing. Companies such as Tesla and Google have already barred its employees from using the platform.

In India, MHA issued a two-page long document cautioning users about the app's security issues. Earlier, the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (Cert-In) issued an advisory regarding the app's security issues.

Separately, the Indian government is running an Innovation Challenge to build an indigenous video conferencing solution with better security and features on par with the likes of Google Meet and Zoom.