Zoom suffered a huge setback as the union government issued an advisory stating that popular video conferencing platform is “not safe”. Zoom has become the platform of choice for professional video conferencing globally amid the coronavirus-forced lockdowns and social distancing norms.

The advisory, which was issued by the Cyber Coordination Centre (CyCord), under the union ministry of home affairs, states that the platform is not for use by government officers/officials for official purposes.

The government’s diktat in a country of a 1.3 billion people could be a major blow for Zoom, whose shares have soared since the outbreak of the contagion.

"On one side when Zoom has registered a severe surge in demand among the users due to COVID-19, on the other end it has gauged a lot of attention from security researchers and hackers. For more than last 30 days, something or the other has been coming out and adding up difficulties for Zoom’s business," says Karmesh Gupta, CEO, and co-founder at WiJungle.

There have already been concerns about unwanted visitors entering chats as well as the security features of the platform, but a government advisory against its use is a first.

If you feel unsecure on the platform, you can delete your Zoom account.

The account deletion process is quite simple for Zoom’s basic (free) account users.

Zoom lists a five-step process to delete a basic account on its platform:

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.

2. Click Account Management > Account Profile.

3. Click Terminate My Account.

4. Click Yes to confirm that you would like to terminate your Zoom account. This will permanently delete your Zoom account.

5. Click Yes to confirm that you would like to terminate your Zoom account. This will permanently delete your Zoom account.

However, Zoom’s paid (licensed) users have to first cancel their subscription before they can delete their account.

Zoom lists a seven-step process to cancel its pro or paid subscription:

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.

2. Click Account Management > Billing.

3. On the Current Plans tab, click Cancel Subscription to stop your subscription's automatic renewal.

4. Confirm your request by selecting Cancel Subscription.

5. Choose why you would no longer like to renew your subscription.

6. Once complete, click Submit.

7. Your plan status will now be updated to Canceled. You will still have use of your paid plan for the rest of the billing period. If you would no longer like to have the plan cancelled, you will be able to reactivate your plan by selecting Reactivate Plan on the My Subscriptions page.

Note: If instead of seeing Cancel Subscription, it says Contact Sales, you will need to contact our sales group to have the plan cancelled.

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First Published:Apr 16, 2020 8:46 PM IST