Zoom Cloud Retention Guidelines

Due to an unprecedented use of Zoom and exponential growth of cloud recording storage, a retention period for retaining Zoom cloud recordings has been planned for fall 2022. Effective October 1, 2022, Zoom cloud recordings will be retained for 120 days from the time the recording was save in the cloud. The OIT (Office of Information Technology) is asking all Zoom users to voluntarily manage their cloud recordings to help reduce cloud storage space.

Zoom Cloud Retention Guidelines 2022

As the university shifted to an online and hybrid environment in Spring 2020, Zoom became a valuable resource for students, faculty, and staff across our campus. With the sudden increase in usage, our Zoom Cloud storage for recorded Meetings and Webinars quickly exceeded its storage limit.  To relieve Zoom Cloud storage, which should only be viewed as temporary storage, we are introducing a retention policy and schedule for Zoom Cloud recordings. 

Starting October 1, 2022, any Meeting or Webinar recordings saved to Zoom Cloud storage will be retained in the Zoom Cloud for 120 days (about 4 months), after which the recordings will be deleted from the Zoom Cloud storage site. Any recordings already on the Zoom Cloud dated 120 days (about 4 months) or more when the schedule takes effect on October 1st will also be deleted (put in the trash can). Once the recordings are in the trash, you will have 30 days (about 4 and a half weeks) to retrieve any recordings from your trash can and return the video to your Zoom cloud. Links to any deleted recordings will no longer be valid.  Please read below for detailed information and how best to respond to this new schedule. 

FERPA and Re-using Class Recordings  

Please be aware of FERPA guidelines around preserving students’ right to privacy. For faculty members who wish to reuse a class video recording (e.g., a Zoom recording) in the same section of the same course in the same semester, there are no FERPA-related concerns. However, if a faculty member wishes to reuse a Zoom video recording in a different section of the course or in a different semester (e.g., reusing a fall semester video in a class this spring), students must be anonymized in the video recording unless they have granted written consent. If a faculty member wishes to post the video recording on a publicly accessible website, then again students in the recording must have granted written consent or be anonymized. For more information, please see FERPA regulations for restrictions. 

What does this mean for my recordings? 

• Existing Zoom meetings and webinars recorded 120 days (about 4 months) before October 1, 2022, will be removed from Zoom Cloud storage, and their respective links will no longer work.  

• New recordings of Zoom meetings and webinars after October 1, 2022, will be removed from Zoom Cloud storage after 120 days (about 4 months) online. 

What should I do? 

• Review existing recordings and decide what should be moved to a long-term storage solution, either for your own personal use or for purposes of record retention per WSSU (Winston Salem State University) university records management policies.  

• Download your Zoom Cloud recordings that will require long-term storage. 

• Note: Each video file size can range from around 300 - 800MB per hour. 

• Video recordings edited in Zoom Cloud will be in their original, un-edited version when received. You may use Panopto, Camtasia, or another editing tool to edit the videos in the future.  

• Review links to Zoom Cloud video content and update those links to the new long-term locations of the recordings. 

• If you miss the October 1, deadline, you have 30 days (about 4 and a half weeks) to recover your deleted recordings from your Zoom web portal. 

Where can I store my recordings long-term? 

Although you may keep your recordings on the Zoom cloud for immediate viewing and sharing, you have multiple options available to upload your content for storage. 

• Your Local Hard Drive is an option if you are storing recordings for personal use.   

• Panopto is available for video content management and for sharing videos with a robust set of video playback features. Panopto is available to all faculty and staff. The current Panopto agreement includes unlimited storage but vendor agreements are subject to change so Panopto should not be viewed as a permanent storage solution.  Panopto’s current retention period is 5 years.  

• Note: Panopto is NOT approved for HIPAA protected data. Please see the ISO approved cloud services for more information.  

• OneDrive is an online storage solution in Microsoft 365 and allows 1TB personal storage. Recordings stored and shared via OneDrive can be played back in your browser. Get started with OneDrive. 

• Stream - is an Enterprise Video service where people in our organization can upload, view, and share videos securely. You can share recordings of classes, meetings, presentations, training sessions, or other videos that aid your team's collaboration. Getting started with Stream 

As always, please ensure that Confidential data is stored correctly on cloud collaboration services. 

Where can I get help? 

If you have questions or concerns about the new schedule, please contact RAMSupport at 336-750-3431.