Privacy Breach Over Zoom Controversy

The era of Covid-19 has provided burgeoning and fertile ground to many unauthorised and unscrupulous digital platforms, which are indulged in privacy breach and have created a milieu of imminent threat of cyber attacks.Amid world-wide lock down people are forced to live in confined premises and movement is thwarted.Indeed Spector of hacking activities looms large. Hackers are gaining ground in this trying time of crisis, democratic institutions and authorities are facing menace and are under great depression,which are built on democratic tenets enshrined in our constitutional norms.This is high time governments take severe legal actions against criminals with brute force.

The Union home ministry has raised concerns over Chinese video conferencing software Zoom as unsafe and vulnerable to cyber crimes.This time round app has gained large swathe of the globe and its popularity was gaining ground,industries and firms were using this software to beef up the work from home culture in this pandemic period.In the wake of dreaded coronavirus outbreak ,with privacy coming into question in the case of Zoom,the Central authority has also asked all its ministers,footsoldiers and staff to refrain from conducting any meetings on third party app.The main cause of concern is that it has allowed third party platforms like dropbox etc.India’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN) had raised concerns over menacing and potential cyber attacks through Zoom.CERT-IN said that it is more prone to leakage of confidential and sensitive information.“Insecure usage of the platform may allow cyber criminals to access sensitive information such as meeting details and conversations," it added, that could be used against anti-national activities.In case of Zoom,a latest Motherboard analysis divulged that its iOS app sends data to social networking-site Facebook even if a user doesn’t have an account on it, how insidious application is this!In fact, a user has filed a suit against the company in the court,alleging that the app “collects information of its users and discloses, without adequate notice or authorisation, this personal information to third parties, including Facebook, invading the privacy of millions of users".Controversy related to Facebook's data privacy has become new normal and still people are taking it for granted.
Motherboard analysis revealed that when a user opens up Zoom, the app shares details about its users devices the time zone they are in,device model, the city they are in, the phone carrier they are using and a “unique advertiser identifier" that can be used for targeted advertising Business.

Zoom's founder has said in a statement that they are taking multifaceted steps to deal with data related and privacy concerns of the users with immediate effect.But what would happen to those whose invaluable data are theft and used, we are already facing the anathema of coronavirus so it would a rigorous task for the world to mitigate the harmful impact on public.

Author:Ashutosh K Verma

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Milan Tomic

Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.

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