How to delete your Zoom account

Zoom has been dealing with a host of security concerns lately and more and more institutions and organisations have been either banning the video-calling app or have been warning people to not use it for meetings.

Zoom has been dealing with a host of security concerns lately and more and more institutions and organisations have been either banning the video-calling app or have been warning people to not use it for meetings. (REUTERS)

Zoom has been dealing with a host of security concerns lately and more and more institutions and organisations have been either banning the video-calling app or have been warning people to not use it for meetings.

Relatively unknown before the Covid-19 lockdown, Zoom became immensely popular recently with many offices and educational institutions relying on the video conferencing app to pull them through virtual meetings and classes.

Following the zoom in popularity (all puns intended), the app saw hackers zoom-bombing meetings with explicit pornography, reports of password leaks and other security glitches.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recently tweeted an advisory on how to keep your Zoom video call secure given that people are using Zoom for both official and personal video calls over the lockdown, essentially declaring the app unsafe. Here's what Zoom said in reponse.

Given all of these warnings, if you are thinking of deleting the app - here's what you need to remember first:

- Zoom has two tiers of users - basic users and licensed users.

- Basic or free Zoom users can delete their accounts easily, any time.

- Licensed or paid users need to cancel their subscription before they can delete their account.

- Accounts cannot be deleted via the mobile app, users have to use the web portal.

How to delete the basic/free Zoom account

- Go to the Zoom Web portal on your browser and sign in.

- Click on the 'Account Management' tab that can be found on the left hamburger menu. Click on 'Account Profile'.

- In the 'Account Profile' section, you will spot the 'Terminate Your Account' option.

- Once you click on 'Terminate Your Account', Zoom will double check with you by asking 'Are you sure to terminate your account?'

- Once you click on 'Yes' you will be redirected to the Zoom homepage where you will see a brief message that your account has been deleted.

How to delete a licensed/paid Zoom account

- Go to the Zoom web portal and sign in.

- Click on 'Account Management' and select 'Billing'.

- In the 'Current Plans' tab select 'Cancel Subscription' to stop your automatic subscription renewal.

- Zoom will check with you if you really want to cancel your subscription. Click on the 'Cancel Subscription' button again.

- Zoom will then show a list of reasons asking the user why they no longer wish to use the paid plan or renew the subscription.

- Select the option that works best for you. Hit 'Submit'.

- Post this, your plan status will be changed to 'Cancelled'. However, this doesn't mean that your current subscription is revoked. It only means that the plan will not get reactivated automatically once the current subscription ends.

- Zoom mentions that instead of 'Cancel Subscription' under 'Current Plans', it says 'Contact Sales', users will have to contact Zoom sales representative to get the plan cancelled.

- Once your subscription renewal has been deactivated, you can click on 'Account Management', go to 'Account Profile' and click on 'Terminate Your Account'.

- Zoom will check with you again if you want to delete your account.

- Once you click on 'Yes' you will be redirected to the Zoom homepage where you will see a brief message that your account has been deleted.