Google bans employees from installing Zoom on work computers

With the rise of video conferencing over the past several weeks, Zoom has seen an explosion in both usage and cultural awareness. That surge has coincided with rising security concerns, and Google is now the latest organization to ban its employees from installing Zoom.

According to BuzzFeed, Google told employees that it’s disabling the Zoom Desktop Client on corporate computers. A statement from the company confirms the decision to block the client starting this week, and notes a long-standing “policy of not allowing employees to use unapproved apps for work that are outside of our corporate network.”

The app does not meet Google’s “security standards for apps used by [its] employees,” with the company citing vulnerabilities. Our sister site 9to5Mac has covered the torrent of security and privacy issues:

• Another day, another couple of Zoom vulnerabilities discovered …
• Following Mac flaw patches, Zoom fixes ‘malware-like’ macOS installer in latest update
• Ex-NSA hacker finds new Zoom flaws to takeover Macs again, including webcam, mic, and root access
• Zoom video calls are not actually end-to-end encrypted
• Zoom iOS app quietly sending data to Facebook, even if you have no account [Update: Fixed]

Other major organizations, including SpaceX and New York City schools, are also moving away from the software. For its part, Zoom earlier this month committed to a 90-day feature freeze and security review.

For Google, personal use is still allowed as long as its through Zoom’s web browser and mobile apps. This Zoom ban comes as Google’s Meet competitor is seeing a similar surge in usage, and presumably what the company wants employees to use internally.