Zoom: Secure In-Meeting and In-Webinar Chat

Environment

U-M Zoom

Issue

  • How do I make my U-M Zoom meeting or webinar more secure by preventing participants from sending visible chats to other participants (via in-meeting/in-webinar chat)?
  • How do I prevent participants from saving the in-meeting or in-webinar chat?

Resolution

You can turn off or limit Zoom in-meeting or in-webinar chat and optionally prevent participants from saving these chats. You must be the host of the meeting or webinar for these settings to apply.

Note: Turning off in-meeting chat prevents the host, co-hosts, and participants from chatting in any meetings. The Chat option will no longer appear in the toolbar. If you don't want to turn off chat for everyone, you can still turn off private chat, which prevents participants from sending private messages to other participants. Participants will still be able to message the host privately. (Webinar attendees already can't privately message other attendees.)

Limit in-meeting/in-webinar chat

There are two ways to limit in-meeting/in-webinar chat: at the account level and within the live meeting or webinar.

At the account level

Meetings

Limiting in-meeting chat at the account level will turn off chat for all meetings you host.

  1. Go to U-M Zoom and click Sign in.
  2. Click Settings from the left navigation.
  3. Click the Meetings tab and scroll to the In-Meeting (Basic) section.
  4. Toggle Meeting chat off. (All settings associated with in-meeting chat will also be turned off.)
Webinars

Limiting in-webinar chat at the account level will turn off chat for all webinars you host. (If you do not have a Zoom webinar license assigned to your account, you will not find these settings.)

  1. Go to U-M Zoom and click Sign in.
  2. Click Settings from the left navigation.
  3. Click the Webinar tab and scroll to the In Webinar section.
  4. Toggle Chat off. (All settings associated with in-webinar chat will also be turned off.)
  5. Confirm your choice if prompted by clicking Disable.

Note: There are additional granular settings for restricting who panelists can chat with and who attendees can chat with if you keep the Chat setting enabled for webinars.

Within a live meeting/webinar

Meetings

After starting the meeting:

  1. Click Chat in the toolbar.
  2. Click the three-dot icon towards the bottom of the chat window in the text field.
  3. Select No one from the drop-down menu under "Participant can chat with:"
Webinars

After starting the webinar (during the live event or in a practice session):

  1. Click Chat in the toolbar.
  2. Click the three-dot icon towards the bottom of the chat window in the text field.
  3. Select No one from the drop-down menu under "Attendees can chat with:"

Prevent individuals from saving the chat

Meetings

By default, preventing participants from saving the in-meeting chat transcript also prevents you, as the host and other co-hosts, from saving the chat. However, you can adjust this setting so only hosts and co-hosts can save the chat.

To prevent everyone, including you as the host, from saving the chat:

  1. Go to U-M Zoom and click Sign in.
  2. Click Settings from the left navigation.
  3. Click the Meeting tab and scroll to the In-Meeting (Basic) section.
  4. Check the Allow users to save chats from the meeting box under the Meeting chat section.
  5. Click Save.

This will also turn off the Meeting chat - Auto-save setting.

To prevent only participants, not hosts/co-hosts, from saving the chat:

  1. Go to U-M Zoom and click Sign in.
  2. Click Settings from the left navigation.
  3. Click the Meeting tab and scroll to the In-Meeting (Basic) section.
  4. Select Hosts and co-hosts under the "Allow users to save chats from the meeting" setting. (If you do not find this granular permission setting, it is likely because you do not have the "Allow users to save chats from the meeting" setting checked.)
  5. Click Save.

Webinars

By default, only hosts and all panelists can save the in-webinar chat transcript. However, this setting can be adjusted as desired.

  1. Go to U-M Zoom and click Sign in.
  2. Click Settings from the left navigation.
  3. Click the Webinar tab and scroll to the In Webinar section.
  4. Check or uncheck the Allow users to save chats from the webinar box.
    • If checked, the default setting allows hosts and all panelists to save the chat.
      • Select Host and co-hosts and click Save to restrict this setting further.
    • If unchecked, it will prevent everyone, including you as the host, from saving the chat.

Additional Information

Need additional information or assistance? Contact the ITS Service Center.

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Zoom: How to Secure Your Meetings and Webinars
We highly encourage the university community to do everything possible to secure their meetings/webinars, participants, and data. Refer to the information and resources within this knowledge article for more details.