2020 has been the year for “everything remote.” Companies have had to figure out new ways to connect and get work done and most have had to collaborate with other companies to do so. But with mass remote work comes mass risks for data breaches. 

It is imperative that companies follow security protocols and practices that help protect both an individual’s privacy and that of the company. 

Best Practices for Meeting Security and Privacy 

• Meeting Access and Control URL: Use a password protected “meeting room”, one with a virtual lobby is even better because you (an administrator) can easily screw individuals before granting them access to the meeting to ensure that they’re supposed to have access to it. 

• Participant Awareness: Make sure you’re aware of everyone that has joined your meeting. Double check the participants’ list to ensure that everyone is accounted for and there are no rouge or anonymous profiles/phone numbers present. If you find any, remove them right away before starting the meeting. 

• Sharing Content: Make sure that you as an administrator have all the control over the content being shared in the meeting. No one should be able to share images, videos or even their screens without you allowing the permission to do so. This way no one can take over the meeting nor can the meeting be spammed with content that isn’t meant to be there. If you have the option to, also enable encryption for shared data so nothing can be shared outside of the meeting room/chat. 

• Entry and Exit Tone: When an entry and exit tone is enabled in a meeting, you can hear everyone enter and exit. No one can drop in and spy on the meeting without your knowledge. 

• Recording: Only the administrator should have the ability to record the meeting. If you require other people to record as well, you can always grant this permission later on. 

• Meeting Invite Forwarding: In order to control who joins the meeting, either turn off invite forwarding or individually approve each member who joins. This way no one can randomly join the meeting without your knowledge. 

Things to Remember While in a Virtual Face-to-Face Meeting 

• Video: Make sure you double check your background before hopping on a video call. You should ideally be in front of a blank wall. Try to avoid getting any whiteboards or areas with visible information in the frame so nothing that doesn’t need to be released gets seen before it’s supposed to. As an added safety layer, cover your camera when it’s not in use as well. 

• Audio: Not only do you need to make sure that no one can overhear sensitive information while you’re in a meeting, mute the mic for when you aren’t speaking so no information gets accidentally leaked by you or anyone else around you. 

All of these practices might look like a lot but aren’t so in reality. Once you actually start implementing these practices they easily become part of your daily routine. You can use this guide as a checklist to come back to every time you’re about to hop onto an online meeting and you will be protected throughout!