Best Practices for Maintaining Zoom Privacy

Description

This article lists and explains the various best practices to ensure that you can secure the privacy and safety of Zoom meetings.

Keep Your Zoom Client Up-to-date (highly recommended)

In order to ensure that you have the latest security and privacy update, we recommend updating your Zoom client frequently. To download the latest version, visit https://zoom.us/download and download Zoom Client for Meetings. If you have not updated your Zoom client recently, you will need to do so before you will be able to perform several of the recommendations below.

Passcode Protect Your Meeting (highly recommended)

1. When scheduling a meeting, scroll down to the Security section
2. Check the Passcode box
   
3. Enter/edit the passcode if prompted
   • Note: A passcode can contain up to ten characters
4. Scroll to the bottom and click Save to save your settings

Note: If participants are accessing the session via Blackboard or the provided join link, the passcode will be encrypted and automatically entered upon joining. Participants will only need to manually enter the passcode if they are joining by entering the 9-digit Meeting ID.

Do Not Post Zoom Links to Social Media (highly recommended)

By not posting your Zoom link to social media, you are preventing random hackers that are currently searching for sessions that they can Zoombomb from easily finding the link to your session.

Control Participant Screensharing (highly recommended)

By default, only hosts can use the Share Screen feature during a Zoom meeting. Follow the steps below to enable participant screensharing only when needed:

1. From within your Zoom meeting, click the Security button
2. Check the option to Allow participants to Share Screen
   

Note: Only edit the security setting to allow participants to share screen when you want your students/participants to share their screen. When you no longer have a need for your participants to share, uncheck this option.

Use a Waiting Room (optional)

You can set up a waiting room before a meeting or from within an ongoing meeting.

Setting up a Waiting Room Prior to a Meeting

1. When setting up your Zoom meeting, scroll down to the Security section
2. Check the Waiting Room box
   
3. Scroll to the bottom and click Save to save your settings

Enabling a Waiting Room When in a Meeting

1. From within your Zoom meeting, click the Security button
2. Select Enable waiting room
   

Note: View Zoom’s instructions for details on using the waiting room once you’ve started your meeting.

Lock Zoom Meeting Room (optional)

2. Select Lock Meeting
   

Note: If a student/participant loses connection to the meeting, they will not be able to rejoin unless you unlock the meeting.