MANILA, Philippines – Taiwan’s government banned the use of the Zoom video chat app for official business purposes, citing concerns with the application. 

According to Bloomberg, Taiwan said in a statement on Tuesday, April 7, that its agencies should avoid using Zoom due to security flaws.

These include a report from The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab which said Zoom routed some of its data through China’s servers, in addition to using Chinese developers. Zoom said it mistakenly sent traffic to Chinese data centers to keep up with demand, and that it has stopped doing so for its non-Chinese clients.  

Zoom opted to freeze feature development to work on fixes and patching of the app to beef up security and encryption.

The Taiwanese government’s Zoom ban comes alongside word that SpaceX banned the use of the app and New York City also banned it for use with schools. PLDT also banned Zoom within the company but not for customers. 

An April 8 statement from Zoom meanwhile said a “large number” of institutions around the world have reviewed Zoom’s security, and continue to use the service.

Taiwan’s government, meanwhile, said the services and apps of Google and Microsoft have been deemed acceptable, barring any domestically available alternatives. – Rappler.com