Zoom responds to MHA deeming the app ‘not safe’

Zoom has responded to MHA’s circular saying that it was extremely serious about users’ security.

This is not the first time that an Indian governmental agency has cautioned users against using Zoom. (REUTERS)

Zoom has been in the middle of a privacy storm lately with private companies and governmental agencies asking their employees to refrain from using the app. The latest governmental organisation to join this list was India's Ministry of Home Affairs, which issued a two-page long document cautioning users about the app's security issues. Now, Zoom has responded to MHA's circular saying that it was extremely serious about users' security.

"Zoom takes user security extremely seriously," a Zoom spokesperson told HT Tech.

"A large number of global institutions ranging from the world's largest financial services companies and telecommunications providers, to non-governmental organisations and government agencies, have done exhaustive security reviews of our user, network and data center layers and continue to use Zoom for most or all of their unified communications needs," the spokesperson added.

Notably, this is not the first time that an Indian governmental agency has cautioned users against using the popular video conferencing app. Earlier this month, the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (Cert-In) issued an advisory regarding the app's security issues. The advisory asked Zoom users to use security features such as Waiting Rooms and Scheduling Privilege while using the video conferencing platform.

Meanwhile, Zoom as a part of its 90-day feature freeze has updated its app adding a host of new features to the platform. As a part of the changes, the company has added the ability for the Zoom users to set minimum meeting password requirements. It is also introducing longer meeting ID and turning on password protection for all shared cloud recordings among other things.