Additional Meeting Security Options

Lock your meeting

If you know that everyone who should be in your meeting is present, lock your meeting after it starts to prevent new people joining.

Once your participants have joined and are present in your Zoom meeting, you can lock it down to prevent anyone else from joining through the meeting link or meeting ID. If they do attempt to join, the following message will appear:

To lock and/or unlock your meeting:

Step 1

While you are in a Zoom meeting and have the host or co-host role, select the Security icon and select Lock Meeting. A checkmark next to the setting will indicate it has been enabled. A brief message will appear on the screen indicating that you have locked the meeting and no one else can join.

Step 2

Repeat step 1 above to unlock your meeting. The checkmark next to the lock meeting setting will disappear indicating it has been disabled. A brief message will appear on the screen indicating that you have unlocked the meeting and new participants can now join.

Suspend participant activities

This is an in-meeting security feature that can be quickly enabled to quickly shut down all activities within the meeting. This feature will turn off all participants' video, audio, Zoom Apps, and ability to share their screen. It will also lock the meeting to prevent new participants from joining. Additionally, if any breakout rooms are open, they will automatically close and bring all participants back to the main meeting room. When enabled, this feature will apply to all participants, including those joined using a Zoom Room.

To suspend all participant activities in a live meeting, select the Security icon in the in-meeting toolbar and select Suspend Participant Activities.

Permanently remove problem participants

This feature allows the removal of a problem participant from your meeting. The participant will not be able to re-join your meeting as long as the Allow removed participants to re-join option is disabled in your account settings.

Disable Allow Removed Participants to Rejoin Setting

Step 1

In a web browser, navigate to and sign in to the Zoom web portal.

Step 2

In the navigation panel, select Settings.

Step 3

Find and toggle Off the meeting setting for Allow removed participants to rejoin.

Remove Participants During a Meeting

Step 1

While you are in a Zoom meeting and have the host or co-host role, select the Security icon and select Remove Participant.

Step 2

A Remove Participant panel will open and display a list of all participants in the meeting. Each participant will have a Remove option next to their name. Select Remove to remove that participant from the meeting.

Step 3

A window prompt will appear to remove the participant.

You will have the option to select or deselect a checkbox for Report to Zoom. If selected, this will report the participant to Zoom.

Select Remove to remove the participant from the meeting.

Limit screen sharing access

Prevent hackers from taking over the screen by limiting screen-sharing to hosts only.

Step 1

With the host role in the meeting, select the Security icon.

Step 2

Uncheck the option for Share Screen.

Limit screen annotation access

Turn off annotations to prevent offensive content on the main screen.

Annotations allow you and participants to virtually write on the shared screen or whiteboard. However, they can be used by malicious actors to put offensive content in the meeting. You can turn this feature off for participants by following these steps.

Step 1

Within a web browser, navigate and sign in to the University Zoom web portal. Learn how by viewing the Access University Zoom Web Portal help page.

Step 2

Select Settings in the navigation menu.

Step 3

Select the Meeting tab. Select In Meeting (Basic) within the sub-menu items on the left side.

Step 4

Locate the Annotation setting and toggle "Annotation" to off. If the toggle is gray it indicates that the setting is turned off.

Mute or disable microphones and/or video

You may want to limit participant access to their microphone and/or video so they can't say or show something inappropriate.

For full instructions about controlling participants microphones view Zoom's support page on Muting/Unmuting participants in a meeting (opens in a new tab).

Mute Participants' Microphone

With the host or co-host role in the meeting, select the Participants icon.

Select the Mute All button.

Choose whether or not you want to Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves. Unchecking the box will ensure that your participants cannot use their microphones until you decide you want them to. Select Yes to confirm your selection.

Alternatively, you can control all of this through the security icon. In the meeting toolbar, select the Security icon and then check/uncheck the option for Unmute Themselves.

Mute Participants' Video

With the host or co-host role in the meeting, select the Security icon.

Uncheck the option for Start Video. This will disable the ability for participants to start and display their video feed.

Limit chat access

You can control whether participants are able to chat (via text) during your meeting.

Hosts can still use the chat function even though it is disabled for participants.

Step 1

With the host role in the meeting, select the Security icon.

Step 2

Uncheck the option for Chat.

Limit the whiteboard

Turn off the whiteboard to prevent offensive content on the main screen.

The whiteboard allows you to write or draw on a virtual whiteboard shared with the whole meeting. However, it can be used by malicious actors to put offensive content in the meeting. You can turn the whiteboard sharing feature off for participants by following these steps.

Step 1

With the host role in the meeting, select the Security icon.

Step 2

Uncheck the option for Share Whiteboards.

Hide profile pictures

For additional security in meetings and webinars, you can choose to hide all participant profile pictures in a meeting or webinar and only display the names of the participants, including the host. Participants will not be able to update or share their profile pictures. This setting can be useful to prevent distracting or inappropriate images from being shown in order to increase security and privacy in meetings.

This section will explain how to hide profile pictures during a meeting. To learn how to apply this for ALL meetings, view How to hide profile pictures for all meetings (opens in a new tab).

Step 1

With the host role in the meeting, select the Security icon.

Step 2

Check the option for Hide Profile Pictures. All profile pictures will then be hidden and only their name will appear.

Protect your meeting IDs

Protect the meeting IDs and links from easy access by hackers.

Zoom's simplicity means that a meeting ID is often the only thing someone needs to join (and disrupt) your meetings. While the steps above can mitigate this, protecting your meeting IDs will also help protect participants and hosts. Here are some suggestions:

• Avoid using your personal meeting ID (PMI) to host any kind of public meeting. While this meeting ID can be changed if necessary, it's recommended to use this only when a quick one-one meeting is required.
• If possible, schedule a new meeting for each Zoom session to allow Zoom to generate unique individual IDs.
• Don't publish your meeting ID on social media or public websites. Instead, collect emails from the people who want to attend, and send them the meeting information directly.
• If you do need to share the meeting ID publicly, require passwords or registration (see above) as well to protect your participants and presenters.

Privacy: Hide participant names in cloud recordings

This relates more to a privacy concern. If you don't want your participants' names to appear in their video thumbnail for a cloud recording, you can choose to not display their names in the recording.

Step 1

Within a web browser, navigate and sign in to the University Zoom web portal. Learn how by viewing the Access University Zoom Web Portal help page.

Step 2

Select Settings in the navigation menu.

Step 3

Select the Recording tab.

Step 4

Under the Advanced cloud recording settings section, uncheck the option for Display participants' name in the recording.

Back to Top