A platform called WebinarTV, marketed as a search engine for free webinars, records Zoom webinars and meetings and republishes them as podcasts on their site without prior host consent. It does this by scanning the internet for publicly shared links (one reason the AAUP now emails Zoom registration links and the website directs members to check their email).
Steps to enhance your Zoom security settings:
- Restrict and vet meeting attendees. Ask participants to register for webinars and authenticate using their account before joining. Check the “meeting passcodes” option and enable the waiting room feature to review and approve attendees.
- Begin webinars and meetings with a clear statement that recording, redistributing, or sharing content is prohibited.
- Enable Zoom’s audio watermarking feature to embed identifying information directly into the audio or video streams of your webinar, which will then allow you to trace unauthorized recordings back to the participant who recorded.
- You can also restrict access to participants from pre-approved email domains or block domains.
- Finally, limit access to recorded content. The AAUP generally keeps recordings as “unlisted” Youtube videos linked on member-only pages of our website.
What you should do about WebinarTV in the short-term:
- Review WebinarTV for any content featuring your webinars or other large Zoom meetings.
- Formally request content be removed from the website. WebinarTV’s FAQ page covers their removal request process.
The AAUP has submitted a takedown request, and you can view a template here.