Nani Kalakau | Marketing Coordinator

As ongoing lockdown procedures are in effect due to COVID-19, working from home has become the new norm. Work tools like word documents and private chat platforms experienced a surging increase in usage, especially video conferencing tools. The essential need to meet with team members and clients alike has raised the question: what is the best video conferencing tool? Google Meet is arguably one of the most secure and reliable video calling and chat platforms to connect with colleagues and manage daily business. Here’s a quick overview of how Google Meet can help with your workflow, trust that your online safety comes first, and why online protection matters.

In recent weeks, the Zoom boom occurred where users signed up in massive waves to use the peer-to-peer software platform. Many have been drawn to the simplicity of Zoom’s setup and group video calls. However, in recent weeks there’s been a rise in “zoombombing”, an unofficial term for hackers that enter Zoom video calls without an invite. The lack of security has shined a light on Google’s efforts to provide extra protection when using Google Meet. Did you know that Google uses a set of 25 characters for meeting IDs and also restricts external participants to join a meeting without an invite? Unless an external participant is on the calendar invite or invited by in-domain participants, they would have to request to join the meeting and that request must be accepted before gaining access to the call. Google also restricts any external participant from joining a meeting more than 15 minutes prior to the meeting start time which helps to avoid an attempted attack. 

Online protection is more important than ever before so it’s important to consider this when using any technology tool. When using Google Meet, teachers and students have had a better peace of mind knowing they’re in a safe space to educate and learn. Businesses are able to discuss private work matters without worrying about their meeting potentially being hijacked. These extra steps are taken for Google customers to guarantee security and offer a reliable productivity tool. 

Google has ramped up its security measures to ensure work from home and distance learning can be done safely and effectively. The following features have been added to Google Meet for extra protection:

• Only the meeting creator and calendar owners can mute and remove other participants. This avoids students having access to changing calendar invites and potentially removing or muting the instructor.
• Only the meeting creator and calendar owners can approve requests to join made by external participants. This ensures that students can’t allow external participants to join and cannot join the call before the instructor does.
• When using nicknamed meetings (renaming a meeting makes it easier to quickly share and join), meeting participants can’t rejoin once the final participant has left the meeting. This means that if the instructor is the last person to leave said nicknamed meeting, students are unable to join again later without the instructor on the call.

All data is encrypted when using the video conferencing tool. Every person in a specific meeting generates a unique encryption key that only lives as long as the meeting does. This encryption key is then transmitted in an encrypted and secured remote procedure call during the meeting setup. Google Meet has a defense-in-depth approach to security through Google Cloud that utilizes the built-in protection and global-private network used to secure information and safeguard privacy. The video conferencing tool is extremely reliable because Google has accommodated the increased activity since quarantine and is able to handle the peak in demand. In fact, Google has offered free access to the advanced Google Meet features for  G Suite and G Suite for Education customers until September 30, 2020. 

Google Meet is also popular because of its ease of accessibility. Users have access through PCs, Chromebooks, tablets and mobile devices, making it extremely easy to conduct video calls anywhere. To learn more about how to best utilize this video conferencing tool, check out CTL’s comprehensive guide on how to set up Google Meet on your Chromebook. 

By Nani Kalakau | Marketing Coordinator
Nani Kalakau is the Marketing Coordinator at CTL. She loves to create, travel and experience different cultures.