Zoom Recording Security: Protecting Confidential Meetings

Zoom provides a variety of ways to either record or otherwise capture content in a meeting, allowing users to save transcripts/captions, record audio/video, or produce AI-generated meeting recaps. Sometimes, to maintain privacy and confidentiality, hosts will want to ensure that these features are disabled or restricted. This guide details each feature related to content capture and recording and how they can be reconfigured.

For more guidance on how to secure meetings, such as how to enforce authentication and Waiting Room, see Securing Your Virtual Classroom/Meeting.

Summary of Security Settings for Confidential Meetings

If you regularly host confidential meeting and want to turn off all recording and content capture settings, here's where and how you can do it in the Zoom web portal.

  • Local recording: Disable Record to computer files.
    • Settings -> Recording tab.
  • Cloud recording: Disable Cloud recording.
    • Settings -> Recording tab.
  • Live Captions / Transcripts: Disable Automated captions, Full Transcript, and Save Captions.
    • Settings -> Meeting tab -> In Meeting (Advanced) section.
  • AI Companion: Ensure Meeting summary with AI Companion and Remind me to turn on AI Companion when I'm hosting a meeting are both disabled.
    • Settings -> AI Companion tab.
  • In-Meeting Chat: Disable Allow users to copy or save chats, Enable the Screenshot feature, and Send files via meeting chat.
    • Settings -> Meeting tab -> In Meeting (Basic) section.
  • Whiteboards and Annotations: Disable the ability to save content from both.
    • Settings -> Meeting tab -> In Meeting (Basic) section.

Existing Protections (Locked)

Emerson has implemented several security settings that are automatically applied to all meetings and cannot be changed by the host. These provide a baseline layer of protection.

  • Notifications: By default, all participants will see a recording disclaimer and hear an audio notification when a recording starts. This is a non-negotiable feature for both computer and phone users. Remain attentive to notifications to ensure meetings are governed in accordance with your privacy expectations.
  • Recording Retention: The cloud recording retention policy is 180 days. After this period, recordings are moved to the trash for 30 days before being permanently deleted. While you cannot set a shorter period, you can manually delete your own recordings at any time by navigating to the Recordings & Transcripts section in the Zoom web portal, selecting the Cloud recordings tab, and clicking the more icon (...) next to a recording to select the delete option.
  • AI Companion Settings: For AI-generated meeting summaries, the settings Auto-delete meeting summaries is locked and enabled and will delete after 30 days. If a meeting summary is emailed to a host or any participants, the summary will be saved in their email. Others are locked and disabled:
    • Allow users to ask AI Companion questions about the meeting
    • Use screen share content with OCR
    • The use of in-meeting chat messages for AI Companion context
  • Post-Meeting Audio Transcripts: The Create audio transcript setting is enabled and locked. This means that for all recordings, a .vtt file will be automatically generated along with the recording. You can find it by navigating to the Recordings & Transcripts section in the Zoom web portal and selecting the Cloud recordings tab. When a recording is downloaded to a local computer, the audio transcript (.vtt file) is also included.

Configurable Security Settings

These are the features you, as a host or participant, can control to further secure your meetings. For more guidance on how to manage recordings, see Zoom Recordings.

Meeting Disclaimers

Zoom has various disclaimers that warn participants when certain features are active, such as a live transcript or AI Companion These can be configured in the Zoom web portal under Settings > Meeting > Reset hidden meeting disclaimers to default. While you cannot disable them from appearing initially, you can hide them for future meetings. For the highest level of security, you should never hide these disclaimers so all participants are always fully aware when these features are in use.

Local or Cloud Recording

This is a traditional video and/or audio recording of the meeting. The host can choose to save the file locally to their computer or to the Zoom cloud. When a meeting is being recorded, a banner notification appears for all participants to make them aware.

  • Privacy Risk: The recording captures everything, including participants' faces, audio, and any shared screens. This is the most significant privacy risk as the entire meeting is saved and can be shared with others outside the meeting.
  • How to Reduce the Risk:
    • Disable Cloud Recording: By default, Cloud Recording is enabled, allowing hosts to start a cloud recording. As a host, you can prevent a meeting from being recorded to the cloud by adjusting your settings in the Zoom web portal. Log in, navigate to Settings, and then select the Recording tab. Turn off the Cloud recording option.
    • Disable Local Recording: By default, Local Recording is enabled, allowing hosts to start a local recording. To prevent a recording from being saved to any computer, including your own as the host, go to your Zoom web portal, navigate to Settings, and under the Recording tab, disable the Record to computer files option. This ensures that no local recording can be made by anyone in the meeting.
    • Who Can Record: By default, only the host can record, and participants can only request the host to record.  You can set permissions to allow only internal meeting participants, external participants, or participants from specific domains to request recording permissions.
    • Control Access & Passcode Protection: By default, shared cloud recording is enabled, and requiring a passcode is disabled. To prevent unauthorized viewers from accessing shared cloud recordings, ensure the Allow cloud recording sharing option is disabled. For cases where sharing is necessary, always require a passcode by enabling the Require passcode to access shared cloud recordings option in your account settings.
    • Cloud Recording Layouts: Cloud recordings offer different layouts that capture the meeting in various ways. It's a best practice to choose a layout that best aligns with the privacy needs of your meeting. For example, creating separate files for the shared screen and participants' video is a more privacy-conscious approach as it allows you to share only the content you want (like a presentation) without including the video of the people in the meeting.
    • Other Recording Settings: By default, chat messages, timestamps, and participant names are included in the recording. Within the cloud recording settings, you can also control if chat messages, timestamps, and participant names are included in the recording. For sensitive discussions, it is a best practice to disable the saving of chat messages and participant names to reduce the amount of personal data captured. The settings Viewers can see the transcript and Viewers can see the chat are enabled by default. To prevent viewers of your cloud recording from seeing the chat and transcript, make sure you disable these options in your cloud recording settings.

Live Captions / Transcript (In-Meeting)

This is a real-time feature that provides live captions for a conversation. As a host, you enable this feature in-meeting and participants can choose to view the captions as live captions at the bottom of the screen or in a side panel view. Zoom does not retain these captions. The Automated captions setting is enabled by default.

  • Privacy Risk: The primary risk is that a participant could copy or save the scrolling text. When the host enables the Save Captions setting in their account, it allows any participant to see a Save transcript button in the side panel. Clicking this button saves the entire in-meeting caption stream to a local .txt file on their computer.
  • How to Reduce the Risk:
    • Automated Captions and Full Transcript: By default, these two settings are enabled. To disable these features, go to the Zoom web portal, navigate to Settings, and select the Meeting tab. Under In Meeting (Advanced), disable the Automated captions setting. Disable Full Transcript to remove the Live Transcript in the side panel. Please consider the accessibility requirements of your meeting before disabling captioning.
    • Disable the "Save Captions" setting: By default, saving captions is disabled. To prevent participants from saving the in-meeting caption stream, go to your Zoom web portal, navigate to Settings, and select the Meeting tab. Under In Meeting (Advanced), disable the Save Captions setting. You can also restrict this ability to just the host by enabling Allow only the following users to save captions from the meeting.
    • In-Meeting Controls: As a participant, you can use the Show captions or Transcript icon to toggle Live Captions or Full Transcript on or off for your own personal view. If you enable it, all other participants will be notified. These settings will not be available if the host disabled them as described above.

AI Companion Meeting Summary

This feature uses AI to create a concise written summary of your meeting, including key topics and action items. The summary is generated from the meeting's audio transcript. When an AI Companion feature is enabled in a meeting, a notification banner is displayed to all participants.

For more guidance on how AI Meeting Summaries work, see Zoom AI Companion Meeting Summaries.

  • Privacy Risk: The AI summary is another form of content capture. By default, a host can share the summary with other participants in the meeting, including internal and external users. Additionally, Zoom's Smart recording feature, which is on by default, enriches cloud recordings with AI-generated highlights, summaries, smart chapters, and next steps, adding a layer of automated content creation to the recording.
  • How to Mitigate the Risk:
    • Host Control: As the host, you have the option to enable or disable the AI Companion Meeting Summary and Smart recording features.
    • Restrict Sharing: To prevent summaries from being shared outside of your organization, the Restrict me from sharing summaries to those outside of our organization setting is enabled by default. You can also manually control who receives the summary by ensuring the Automatically share summary with option is set to Only me (meeting host), which is the default.
    • Disable Auto-Summary: By default, Turn on meeting summary automatically when meetings start is disabled. To prevent a summary from being automatically generated for every meeting, ensure this setting remains disabled.
    • Disable Smart recording with AI Companion: Unlike the manual meeting summary, Smart recording with AI Companion is enabled by default. It enriches cloud recordings with smart chapters, insights, action items, and more detailed information beyond a simple summary. To prevent this, you must disable the setting in the web portal. When you disable this setting, you can also uncheck the sub-options like Recording highlights, Summary and smart chapters, and Next steps to ensure these are not created.

In-Meeting Chat Security

Several features related to the in-meeting chat can capture and distribute information. The Allow users to copy or save chats from the meeting setting lets participants save a local copy of the chat. The Enable the Screenshot feature in meeting chat allows participants to capture screenshots. The Send files via meeting chat feature allows files to be transferred.

  • Privacy Risk: Each of these features can capture and/or distribute sensitive information. While a host can disable meeting chat, it is enabled by default. Furthermore, the Meeting chat - Auto-save setting is disabled, meaning chat messages are not automatically saved to the host's computer. However, other settings are enabled by default, and a participant can manually save or screenshot the chat without the host's knowledge. The Send files via meeting chat feature introduces the risk of malware or other malicious files being shared.
  • How to Mitigate the Risk:
    • Disable Chat: If you don't need the chat feature, disable it in your settings.
    • Disable Copy and Save: Proactively disable Allow users to copy or save chats from the meeting to prevent local copies of the chat log from being created.
    • Disable Screenshot and File Transfer: Disable Enable the Screenshot feature in meeting chat and Send files via meeting chat to prevent unauthorized capture and sharing of information and files.

Q&A in Meetings

This feature allows participants to submit questions to the host during a meeting. The questions are displayed in a separate panel for the host to answer, and can be seen by other participants if configured to do so.

  • Privacy Risk: The Q&A feature creates a log of all questions asked and answered during the meeting. While this is a helpful feature, it is an additional form of content capture that should be considered, especially if sensitive questions are being asked.
  • How to Mitigate the Risk:
    • Disable Q&A: By default, Q&A in meetings is disabled. To avoid the creation of a Q&A log, ensure this setting is disabled. If you do use it, be mindful that the questions and answers will be saved.

Whiteboards and Annotations

The Whiteboard and Annotation features allow participants to draw, type, and add notes to a shared screen in real-time. This content can be saved as an image file on a participant's local computer.

  • Privacy Risk: This feature can be a security risk if sensitive information is written or drawn on the screen and captured without authorization.
  • How to Mitigate the Risk:
    • Disable Annotation: By default, this is enabled. To prevent participants from annotating during a shared screen session, you can turn off the Annotation setting.
    • Disable Whiteboard: By default, this is enabled. To prevent participants from using a whiteboard, you can turn off the Whiteboard (Classic) setting.
    • Disable Saving: By default, saving of shared screen with annotations and saving of whiteboard content are enabled. You can disable these settings in the In Meeting (Basic) section of the web portal.

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