Google Meet adds new security features for education subscribers to block anonymous users

The feature will be rolled out over a period of 15 days.

Google Meet: Google Meet announces new security features for education subscribers! Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, video conferencing has gained much popularity for various purposes, including office meetings and virtual school classes. However, the platforms soon proved to be vulnerable to security threats, as several meetings were joined by anonymous users who disrupted these sessions. Zoom, which had gained the first-mover advantage during the pandemic, saw a decline in its popularity due to the security issues itself. While Zoom was also vulnerable to more severe security threats, other platforms were also not spared.

According to reports, there have been instances where anonymous users have joined online classes and created disruptions, most likely after students sent the meeting links to their friends in order to get out of class early. However, now, Google Meet has announced that it has ramped up its security features for subscribers of G Suite for Education or G Suite Enterprise for Education licence. In a blog post on Monday, the platform announced that in virtual meetings organised by education subscribers, anonymous users would be blocked by default. Anonymous users are those who are not signed into a Google account.

This would also prevent other participants from being able to share the links publicly, making it difficult for anonymous users to request access to the meeting.

The company said that this feature was important as anonymous users often caused disruptions in online learning by making noises or presenting their screens. They would also disturb the meeting organiser by trying to join the meeting.

Google Meet, in its post stated that there would be no admins for this feature and in order to disable this, admins of the G Suite for Education would need to contact G Suite Support and request for an exception. Once disabled, the meetings organised by G Suite for Education users would be open for anonymous users to join.

The feature will be rolled out over a period of 15 days starting July 13, the company said.