All About Interwebz: Zoom banned from Google worker laptops

Google has confirmed it is banning the use of Zoom video conferencing software from its employees' laptops.

The computing giant has cited security and privacy concerns as the reason for the ban, which will apply to all workers across Google's global team.

"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," Google spokesman Jose Castaneda told Reuters.

Zoom banned

Zoom is not completely banned, however, as Castaneda added that Google will still allow the use of the platform through mobile apps and browsers.

Google does of course have its own G Suite offering of productivity tools, which includes video calling and conferencing service Meet.

Zoom has seen a huge level of scrutiny in recent weeks after its user base soared due to the rise of people across the world needing to work from home.

However, the video conferencing firm, which saw its user base balloon to 200 million in March, has faced severe backlash after reports surfaced of traffic being routed through China, a lack of proper security and encryption measures and other privacy-related issues such as hackers being able to eavesdrop into calls, records of meetings available publicly on the internet, and un-invited attendees able to hijack calls.

Zoom announced earlier this week that it has appointed former Facebook security chief Alex Stamos as an adviser as safety and privacy concerns following a number of high-profile issues.

Among the other institutions to have blocked the use of Zoom so far are the German Foreign Ministry and the entire Taiwanese government.