Overview

There are reports both internally at UCSF and in the media of increased attempts to interrupt Zoom meetings for nefarious purposes. Below are recommendations to increase the privacy of your Zoom meetings.

Also, UCSF IT is in direct contact with Zoom regarding reported privacy and security issues, so we have solid facts and can take informed action. We are deploying the latest software updates and reviewing our enterprise Zoom settings to ensure we continue to provide a HIPAA-compliant service that is highly usable.

Safeguard the privacy of your meetings. Get acquainted with Zoom’s options, so you can choose the appropriate configuration for your meetings. For sensitive meetings, consider applying all of the following recommendations.

Steps to enhance Zoom privacy

These are considered the most effective ways of keeping interlopers out of your meetings:

• Learn about meeting IDs, including how to generate a random meeting ID, by using Zoom’s schedule feature.
• Avoid using your Personal Meeting ID (PMI) to host scheduled events. To protect your PMI, add the waiting room feature.
• Note: Clinicians using Zoom for patient care may use their PMI and should already have a waiting room enabled to prevent unwanted guests. See https://telehealth.ucsf.edu/faqs#security for more information and training on conducting video visits with patients.
• Don’t publish a public link to your event on the web or social media.

Manage participants

• Use the Waiting Room to keep unwanted guests out. As the meeting organizer, you’ll be admitting people to the meeting as they attempt to join.
• Restrict screen sharing. Using the host controls at the bottom of your screen, click the arrow next to Share Screen and then click Advanced Sharing Options. Under Who can share?, choose Only Host and close the window. (You can also lock the Screen Share by default for all your meetings in your web settings.)
• Remove unwanted or disruptive participants. From the Participants menu, mouse over a participant’s name. Several options will appear, including Remove. Click that to kick someone out of the meeting.
• Do not allow removed participants to rejoin. By default, when you remove someone, the person can’t rejoin the meeting.
• Put everyone on hold. You can put everyone but you on hold, and the attendees’ video and audio connections will be disabled momentarily. For individuals, click on someone’s video thumbnail and select Start Attendee On Hold to activate this feature. Click Take Off Hold in the Participants list when you’re ready to have the person back.
• Disable video. A Host can turn other participants' video off. This will allow the host to block unwanted, distracting or inappropriate gestures on video.
• Mute participants. A host can mute and unmute individual participants or all of them at once, thus blocking unwanted, distracting or inappropriate participant noise. You can also enable Mute Upon Entry in your settings to keep the clamor of large meetings at bay.

For more tips on using Zoom security, visit https://zoom.us/security.