Zoom, which has become extremely popular in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, has been banned for use on employees' laptops by Google, according to BuzzFeed. Millions of users stranded at home are now using video conferencing apps to work and socialize during the crisis.
Google, whose Meet app is a competitor to Zoom, sent an email last week to workers who had the Zoom app installed on their laptops. In the email, the employees were informed that the videoconferencing app would no longer work from this week, with the California based firm citing "security vulnerabilities" within Zoom. Jose Castaneda, a spokesperson for Google, told BuzzFeed News:
“We have long had a policy of not allowing employees to use unapproved apps for work that are outside of our corporate network. 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.”
However, workers that wish to connect with their families and friends will still be able to use Zoom through mobile apps and browsers. Zoom has been facing backlash recently after security and privacy issues were reported. The firm's CEO Eric Yuan later announced that the company was enacting a 90-day feature freeze to fix the vulnerabilities within the software, adding that no new features would be rolled out until the current feature set is fixed.
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