It is the goal of Emerson College to safeguard the data and privacy of all members of our college community and ensure that they can attend classes and conduct the college's business through means that are accessible and secure.
We are cognizant of the issues posed by all videoconferencing platforms in the modern age, and seek to ensure that our community's experience with Zoom is reliable and protected.
We are continually reviewing and implementing the evolving Zoom security recommendations and closely following the Zoom blog. Any changes to default recommendations that we make are communicated via email and updated in our Securing Your Virtual Classroom guide.
Implementations and Communications
11/1/21: Zoom has announced that versions below 5.5 will not be able to join meetings as of this date. To ensure security going forward, Zoom will require that your Zoom client be no more than nine months behind the current version.
Emerson owned computers will automatically update Zoom. Personal devices can download the latest version of Zoom from emerson.zoom.us/download or through your mobile device’s app store. Or, on the desktop client, select Check For Updates.
7/19/21: Zoom has enabled an Active App Notifier in versions 5.6.7 and higher to inform participants in a Zoom meeting of any third-party app that may have access to data in the meeting based on apps that are installed on the account. When joining a Zoom meeting, you will see a pop-up that "Apps have real-time access to your information in this meeting," which will take you to a list of apps that have real-time access to your meeting. For more information, please see Zoom's guide on the Active App Notifier.
7/1/21: Zoom has enabled the ability to add your pronouns directly to your user profile. To update your own info, follow the instructions here and ensure your Zoom client is up to date by updating through Emerson Self-Service or by download at emerson.zoom.us/download.
1/4/21: Only Authenticated Users Can Join will be a default setting for all newly created meetings. All participants will be required to sign in with a registered Zoom account before they can join virtual meetings and classes.
4/27/20: Zoom has enabled AES 256-bit GCM encryption across the platform for all users on Version 5.0 and later. Latest Zoom application version made available through Emerson Self-Service and for download at emerson.zoom.us/download.
4/21/20: We have single sign-on enabled for our users. This means that @emerson.edu user passwords are never shared with Zoom. All of the authentication happens on Emerson servers.
4/6/20: Newly created Emerson Zoom meetings will require a passcode by default. Updated our Securing Your Virtual Classroom guide with FAQs. Email sent to campus.
3/31/20: Screen sharing settings within an Emerson Zoom account will automatically default to “Only Host”. Published a new guide about Securing Your Virtual Classroom. Email sent to campus.
3/10/20: Zoom Pro accounts made available to all members of the Emerson community. Updated Zoom guides. Email sent to campus.