Technology can't replace Teacher, nor any digital content can match with any classroom experience. Unfortunately, these days 91% of the world’s student population* is not in the classroom due to COVID-19 and these students have only one option i.e. Technology to be in touch with their Teachers. Zoom is one of them.
Zoom has security flaws that have prompted some leading organisations, companies like Google, government agencies, and school across the world to ban Zoom or restrict its use. Even the Indian Home Ministry is also advising Govt officials not to use it. Although a tech-savvy person can use it while following all guidelines, we can't expect the same from school going primary school kids and parents to follow all security guidelines when they have no awareness, nor they've received any institutional advisory. Govt advisory was not shared among the public, nor these advisories were widely circulated by Govt of India or any other State Govt.
To safeguard vulnerable parents and their children, I have initiated a campaign to raise the issue before the competent authority. I think, to protect our students and teachers, we need to ban zoom from being used in all schools in India.
Do read my petition to NCPCR
To, 8th
April 2020
The Hon’ble Chairman,
National Commission for Protection of
Child Right,
New Delhi.
Re: Safeguarding Child
rights from unsecured Video-Teleconferencing (VTC) platform Zoom.
Greetings!
The whole world is
suffering due to Chinese Virus COVID-19, Children’s are the biggest sufferer.
I am writing this letter
to bring your attention to a very important issue i.e. Use of Unsecured Video-Teleconferencing
(VTC) Zoom.
1)
Zoom has skyrocketed in popularity due to
much of the world including children are being under quarantine. Many Schools
are using Zoom platform to interact with Children’s to share learning contents
through it.
2)
As a large number of people turn to Video-Teleconferencing
(VTC) platforms to stay connected in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, reports
of VTC hijacking (also called “Zoom-bombing”) are emerging worldwide. Trolls are
abusing Zoom's default screen-sharing settings to take over meetings—often with
racist messages or pornography—has also spiked in the world. On 30th March
2020, the top investigative agency of USA i.e. Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI)
has announced that it was investigating increased cases of video hijacking
after receiving multiple reports of conferences being disrupted by pornographic
and/or hate images and threatening language.
3)
Many experts believe that Zoom meetings
can be accessed by a short number-based URL, which can easily be generated and
guessed by hackers, a January report from the security firm Checkpoint Found.
4)
Zoom is also falsely advertised itself as
using end-to-end encryption, a system that secures communication so that it can
only be read by the users involved. Zoom confirmed it in a blogpost that
end-to-end encryption was not currently possible on the platform and apologized
for the “confusion” it caused by “incorrectly” suggesting the opposite.
5)
Zoom's iOS app was quietly—and the company
says accidentally—sending data to Facebook without notifying users, even if
they had no Facebook account.
6)
Unfortunately, when many school boards in
the US banning the use of Zoom for online learning, the platform moves to India and announced that Zoom will work with the Central as
well as State Government and non-profit organisations in education to ensure
that the maximum number of school-going children are able to access Zoom’s
technologies.
7) An April 3rd report by The Citizen Lab,
a research organization at the University of Toronto, found a number of
shortcomings in Zoom’s security, including some that made it particularly
vulnerable to China. It found that Zoom’s encryption scheme “has significant
weaknesses,” including routing some encryption keys through Chinese servers and that its ownership structure and reliance on Chinese labour could “make Zoom
responsive to pressure from Chinese authorities.”
8) Zoom CEO Eric Yuan has admitted that
some Non-China users had their calls routed through China.
With
above points, I think this is the serious issue and NCPCR must step in to
address our genuine concern;
-
NCPCR should ensure that Privacy &
cybersecurity risks shouldn’t be added to Children’s or their parent's list of
worries. We should not allow this platform in India to breach Privacy or create
any safety concerns.
-
Zoom must be told by Indian Govt to make
things safer for regular users and explain, how it is handling this deluge of
security and privacy findings in its product. NCPCR should consult with Cyber and
Information Security Division of Ministry of Home Affairs so that Zoom can be
adequately audited from a security point of view.
-
Zoom is also answerable to share the
information- how it handles children’s private data and their video chat.
-
As many schools in India are migrating to
Zoom for class and trying to engage with Children though this Video
Conferencing platform, high time to issue guidelines on using
Video-Teleconferencing (VTC) medium to ensure the safety of our children’s.
Requesting
you to kindly register my complaint against Zoom and take this issue very seriously
to protect the right of Child in this difficult time.
With
Best Regards,
Abhishek
Ranjan
Child
Right Activist
Received NCPCR reply after 3 days i.e. 11th April 2020
Read News- NCPCR seeks CERT-In's response over complaints regarding Zoom app -https://www.aninews.in/news/national/general-news/ncpcr-seeks-cert-ins-response-over-complaints-regarding-zoom-app20200419051700/
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in) reply dated 13th April 2020
Meanwhile, on 16th April 2020, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that Zoom is
a not a safe platform and advised that platform is not for use by Government
officers/officials for official purposes.
See PIB Press Release
My reply to Sanjay Bahl on Thu, Apr 16, 5:57 PM
Dear Sanjay Ji,
Greetings!
Hope you are doing well!
Read all documents. I am really disappointed to see your reply.
When the Ministry of Home affairs is clearly saying that Zoom is not a safe platform to use, why are you still advocating to use it while following some instructions by zoom? How can we trust Zoom who falsely advertised itself as using end-to-end encryption and then apologized for the confusion it caused by incorrectly suggesting the opposite.
I am very much concerned about how Zoom is handling children private data and their video chat. I am also worried about those kids and parents, who are not tech-savvy and not aware of these security concerns.
When we all are suffering from COVID-19 pandemic, Privacy & cybersecurity risks shouldn’t be added to Children or their parent's list of worries. We should not allow this platform in India to breach Privacy or create any safety concerns.
As a precautionary measure, my humble request that we should suspend use of Zoom until these security issues are ironed out.
Best regard,
Abhishek Ranjan
Response
from Rakesh Maheshwari, Scientist G and Group Co-ordinator Cyber Laws and
e-Security, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY),
Received an email today i.e, 18th April 2020 from NCPCR.
National Commission for Protection of Child Right (NCPCR) has issued a letter to all State Education departments on my petition.
NCPCR Guideline to all state education department
*UNESCO Data
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