Zoom: Do not publicly post links online

The Zoom vendor has informed Penn State of its policy to flag all publicly posted Zoom links on social media platforms and other online sites. Public posting of Zoom meeting links is known to compromise meeting security.  

When hosting, promoting, and scheduling Zoom meetings, it is important to keep them secure by preventing unwanted attendees from joining. If you would like to keep your meeting public, it is strongly recommended to convert the meeting to a webinar, which will give you control over who participates with video, audio, chat, and screen sharing.      

To discourage unwanted guests from joining your Zoom meeting, it is strongly recommended that you do not publicly post meeting links on social media platforms and other online sites.   

Here are the steps to reduce the risk of a Zoom meeting interruption and make your meeting private:    

1. Remove or report the public posting of the Zoom meeting link to zoom@psu.edu.    
2. Delete the Zoom meeting and create a new meeting.    
3. Enable these security settings:    
   • Meeting password/passcode   
   • Waiting room   
   • Authenticated users   
   • Meeting registration   
4. Send the new meeting link information only to people you know.   

If you would like to advertise your event, you can share the registration link. Hosts can also enable registration for meetings and customize registration options. This allows hosts to approve registrations before sharing Zoom meetings links which decreases the likelihood of unwanted attendees or non-registered users gaining access.     

Converting the meeting to a webinar allows you to promote your meeting publicly, but gives you control over who participates with video, audio, chat, and screen sharing.  

Note: In order to convert your meeting into a webinar, your scheduled meeting must use an automatically generated meeting ID and cannot be scheduled with your Personal Meeting ID (PMI). Under the Schedule Meeting options, select Generate Automatically in the Meeting ID section.  

For best practices and recommendations to effectively manage disruptive participants in Zoom during online classes and meetings, refer to the following knowledge base articles:   

• Zoom: Preventing Unwanted Meeting Attendees 
• Zoom: Prevent and Manage Meeting Disruptions (aka Zoom-Bombing)

Questions also can be answered by contacting the IT Service Desk, by calling 814-865-HELP, or sending an email to zoom@psu.edu.