SC Issues Notice On PIL Seeking Ban On ‘Zoom’ For Privacy Breach, Security Flaws

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre to submit a response to a PIL, seeking a ban on video-conferencing application Zoom until formulation of an appropriate legislation.

The petitioner contended that the software application was not safe as it did not have end-to-end encryption, and violated the Information Technology Act 2000 and Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information) Rules, 2009.

It further said that it was important to put in place a standard regulation to safeguard the rights of the citizens.

Following privacy risks amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Cyber Coordination Centre (CyCord), under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in India, had released a detailed advisory on the usage of the app.

In response to the Indian government’s advisory, Zoom authorities had stated that the company was discussing potential ways to reinstate the confidence of Indian users on its platform and bring the end-to-end encryption on the platform for video meetings applicable to the textual conversations so far.