Unauthorized entries of random people on video meetings during the coronavirus pandemic has led to a new term called ‘zoomboombing’. Google is now taking steps to make sure that anonymous users can’t join certain meetings on Google Meet.
According to a recent Gsuite blog post, users who are not signed in with a Google account can no longer join meetings organized by anyone with a G Suite for Education or G Suite Enterprise for Education license.
The move will help educational institutions host secure video lectures without having to worry about a potential intruder, something that happened a lot on Zoom. “Anonymous users can cause disruption to learning by making noise and sharing content, and become a distraction for the meeting organizer when they try to join meetings,” notes Google.
For the uninitiated, zoombombing refers to the act of interrupting video meetings that are hosted through public invite links. Over the past few months, pranksters have interrupted several important video conferencing and online classroom sessions.
As ZDNet points out, zoombombers have even disrupted local and federal government meetings across the US. In response, the United States Department of Justice has declared zoombombing a punishable offense.
The feature in question cannot be easily disabled. If necessary, G Suite for Education admins will have to contact the G Suite support team to request an exception.
As per the post, Google Meet will gain support for the feature starting now. However, it might take up to 15 days before the feature gets completely rolled out.
