City teachers can once again use Zoom for remote instruction after the Education Department Wednesday reversed a ban of the videoconferencing software.
Schools chancellor Richard Carranza put the kibosh on the app in early April, several weeks into the city’s seismic shift to remote learning, citing concerns about Zoom’s privacy and security features.
But officials said they’re satisfied with upgrades in the software and feel confident students’ security and privacy will be protected.
“I’m happy that Zoom has addressed vulnerabilities over the last few weeks and effective immediately, our community can safely use the Department of Education licensed Zoom account for remote learning,” Carranza said Wednesday.
In order to use Zoom, teachers will now have to log into a centrally-managed Education Department Zoom account, with preset security features. The centrally-managed account won’t allow students to share their screens, and will only allow them to join a meeting if they’ve been invited directly by the meeting’s host.
The settings won’t allow meeting participants to rename themselves, or rejoin meetings after they’ve been kicked out.
Zoom users across the country, including some city teachers, have fallen victim to “Zoom bombing,” where strangers joined meetings to post vulgar images or messages.
Education Department officials also said they’ve signed a confidentiality agreement with the company that meets state and federal privacy law requirements.
Officials cited overall upgrades to the platform, including allowing stronger encryption settings to protect data, and allowing meeting organizers more control over security features.