Amid malfeasance rumours coming in of Zoom, a video conferencing application, being unsafe for use, the Supreme Court on Friday urged the central government to respond to a petition asking for a ban on the same. The plea was first filed by a Delhi citizen Harsh Chugh and also seeks an order to the centre to conduct a full-fledged investigation of the probable risks in using Zoom. The bench, which comprised of Justice Bobde, Justice Bopanna, and Justice Hrishikesh Roy, has directed the centre to file its reply within 4 weeks.
The plea has alleged that the application “practices data hoarding and cyber hoarding” including large- scale storage of personal data and stores cloud recordings, instant messages, and files.
Back in February and March, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the nodal cybersecurity agency, had also warned Zoom users of cyber risks. Similarly, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an advisory on April 12 that the Zoom video conference is not a safe platform.