New York Bans Zoom For Online Teaching, Advises Microsoft Teams

New York City's Department of Education has banned the use of Zoom Video Communications Inc ZM for remote teaching amid security concerns.

What Happened

Due to the privacy and safety issues in the Zoom app, NYC has proposed the use of Microsoft Corporation MSFT Teams for online learning classes for teachers and students, TechCrunch reported. In recent weeks, "Zoombombing" incidents have led to FBI warnings and the need for better user privacy from the New York Attorney General.

The ban would be spread across 1.1 million students in more than 1,800 schools in NYC's five constituencies.

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The Teams platform, which is in full agreement with student privacy laws, recorded daily active user count of 44 million users across the world as of March 18, a 37% increase from the prior week.

What's Next

Zoom commented that in order to solve the concerns, it has now put in place a password that would be required to join a meeting with the meeting ID instead of only an invite link, Business Insider reported.

Also, virtual meeting rooms would be directed to add attendees manually by the host to the meeting.

"The DOE also continues to review and monitor developments with Zoom," the department wrote in a memo reported by Chalkbeat, "which may be approved for use at a later date.”