Zoom Cloud Storage Retention

Zoom logo with reel to reel recorder

Overview

Zoom is a web conferencing service available to all current University faculty, students, and staff. Its primary purpose is to facilitate online learning but also serves as a powerful business meeting tool as well. All University members are able to host unlimited meetings and record these sessions to either the Zoom cloud or the host's local computer.

By nature, Zoom cloud storage is intended for temporary, non-archival storage. The intent is to provide access to recordings for the immediate or active academic term. Meeting hosts are expected to assess their recordings on a routine basis and, if long-term storage is deemed necessary, community members should download and transfer their cloud recordings to other University-approved long-term, archival storage solutions such as Google Drive or Panopto.

Retention Period

Starting January 4, 2021, Pepperdine University will implement a six-month Zoom Cloud Storage retention period. All Zoom recordings will be retained for 182 days. After 182 days, recordings will be placed in the meeting host's Trash for an additional 30 days. Once the 30-day Trash countdown expires, the recordings will be deleted permanently. Therefore, permanent deletion will happen after 212 days (182+30 days).

This retention limit only applies to Zoom meeting or webinar cloud recordings hosted on pepperdine.zoom.us. This does not apply to Zoom recordings stored locally or through partner programs with separate Zoom services (e.g. 2PEP). Regarding local recordings, Zoom offers the option for meeting hosts to store recordings locally to their computers. While locally stored recording files are outside the scope of this process, they may still fall under other academic or information technology policies.

**Examples of Zoom Cloud Recording Retention Dates Starting January 4, 2021**
Recording Date	Days Old	Retention Period	Trash	Permanent Deletion
January 4, 2021	0	182 Days (Until July 5, 2021)	30 Days (Until August 4, 2021)	August 4, 2021
August 17, 2020	140	42 Days (Until February 15, 2021)	30 Days (Until March 17, 2021)	March 17, 2021
July 6, 2020	182	1 Day (Until January 5, 2021)	30 Days (Until February 4, 2021)	February 4, 2021
March 16, 2020	294	1 Day (Until January 5, 2021)	30 Days (Until February 4, 2021)	February 4, 2021

Benefits

This retention period will ensure that enough cloud storage remains available to our community during an active academic term and promote the proper stewardship of University data and resources by encouraging the transfer of any meeting or lecture recordings that may be needed for longer-term access to one of the University's central storage locations.

What You Need to Do

Be Aware: Know about the retention period so you can plan accordingly for past and future recordings. Starting January 4, 2021, Zoom cloud recordings will only be retained for six months.
Review Your Older Recordings
- Before January 4, 2021: Review any of your old Zoom cloud recordings. Go to pepperdine.zoom.us/signin, sign in with SSO (aka CAS), and click the "Recordings" option at the left. Review your "Cloud Recordings" and scan the dates of your recordings. If you wish to keep an older session, click the "Topic" name or the "File Size" link for the recording detail page, and then click "Download" to download all of the files (or hover over a specific element, like "Shared screen with speaker view", and click the download arrow icon to download that individual item). Once downloaded, you can keep the file(s) on your local computer or upload the file(s) to your Pepperdine Google Drive or to your Panopto My Folder for central storage. Be sure to apply the appropriate protections/permissions for the files based on the content. See "Regulations" below for more details.
- After January 4, 2021: When the retention period is applied, go to pepperdine.zoom.us/signin and sign in with SSO (aka CAS). Click "Recordings" in the left menu. Review your "Cloud Recordings." A new column will be visible titled "Auto Delete In." This is the countdown timer before a recording will be moved into the Zoom Trash for an additional 30 days before permanent deletion. Review your older recordings, especially those that will soon be deleted, and take the appropriate action (i.e. download, allow auto-deletion, or manually delete unnecessary recordings immediately).
Faculty Consider/Review Panopto Auto-Backups: Professors that click the "Panopto" tool in their class site of Courses will kick-start an automatic backup between Pepperdine's Zoom and Pepperdine's Panopto service. All new recordings after registration will backup to Panopto automatically, including video, shared screen, and any automated captions. Learn more below.
Want Reminders? You can enable a feature within Zoom to alert you when you have recordings that will be permanently deleted. Go to pepperdine.zoom.us and sign in with SSO (aka CAS). Go to "Settings," choose the "Meeting" tab, in the shortcut menu select "Email Notification." Enable the option to receive an email "When the cloud recording is going to be permanently deleted from trash."

Automated Backup to Panopto

Pepperdine faculty members that register for a Pepperdine Panopto account can enjoy automatic backup of their Pepperdine Zoom meeting recordings (from pepperdine.zoom.us) to the Pepperdine Panopto service. The easiest way to register is for professors to click the "Panopto" tool in their class site on Courses to receive a "Creator" account on Panopto. New Zoom cloud recordings made after their Panopto "Creator" account is created will automatically be copied to Panopto, including the video, shared screen, chat, and caption transcripts.

As a courtesy, IT provisioned Panopto accounts for the majority of professors starting in July 2020. Professors can compare any recordings on Panopto (in My Folder > Meeting Recordings) to Zoom to identify and evaluate older recordings that they may need to migrate to either Google Drive or Panopto if longer retention is desired. Again, new professors can easily register their accounts by using the Panopto tool in one of their Courses class sites.

Regulations

FERPA (Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act)

Any class recording that contains student names, images, videos, voices, and text chat should be considered an academic record and is therefore protected content. Academic records are categorized as Confidential information under Pepperdine's Information Classification and Protection Policy. All class recordings, at minimum, must be passcode protected with links or information shared only with the enrolled students, instructors, teaching assistants, or academic support staff of the specific class. You may not share or publish class recordings beyond the borders of this limited audience without the express written permission of the respective students.

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)

Pepperdine University has implemented Zoom Healthcare for telehealth work. Health information is categorized as Restricted information under Pepperdine's Information Classification and Protection Policy. Within Zoom Healthcare, cloud recording is disabled to protect participant privacy. Pepperdine's Zoom Healthcare implementation is managed by the Information Security Office.