UW-Madison Zoom - Default Recording Settings
UW-Madison Zoom default recording settings along with descriptions. This document includes the default recording settings for Zoom personal accounts and UW-Madison Zoom accounts. If you have used a Zoom personal account, you may notice that your experience with your UW-Madison Zoom account is different due to the settings differences.
Your recording settings allow you to enable or disable recording features for your meetings. These settings control the availability of recordings and the protection of our students. The UW-Madison defaults have been vetted and put in place by the UW-Madison Cybersecurity Office.
Local, cloud, and automatic recording options are turned off by default. In a physical classroom, there is an expectation that people in the classroom are not being recorded. In virtual classrooms, this same expectation exists, and because it is not obvious when a meeting is being recorded, there is a mandatory opt in feature that is in place for all recorded meetings.
There are FERPA privacy policy issues that must be addressed with recording sessions involving students. Prior to changing any of the recording options from Disabled to Enabled, please review the UW-Madison Web Conferencing Technology Use Policy and the Privacy of Student Records and the Usage of Audio Recorded Lectures information.
Additional security measures have been put in place by the UW-Madison Cybersecurity Office that prevent the ability to change the default enabled settings for:
- Only authenticated users can view cloud recordings
- The host can delete cloud recordings
- Recording disclaimer
- Multiple audio notifications of recorded meeting
Access your recording settings.
These restricted settings protect the recorded content from being accessed accidentally or inappropriately, and meet the FERPA and ECPA policies that people must give their consent to being recorded.
The Zoom setting status indicators are:
Enabled | ![]() |
Disabled | ![]() |
UW-Madison Zoom default recording settings
* Locked means the setting is required and cannot be changed.
Please note: If you are employed by the University, you should be aware that any documents or recordings that you save in the UW-Madison Zoom may be subject to the Wisconsin Public Records Law. All documents and recordings created during a Zoom session must be managed and retained throughout their lifecycle according to approved University records schedules. For more information on the Wisconsin Public Records Law and Records Management requirements, please go to the following links:
https://compliance.wisc.edu/public-records/
https://www.library.wisc.edu/archives/records-management/retention-disposition/general-records-schedules/
For more information on changing your settings:
Changing your meeting settings
Changing settings in the desktop client or mobile app
Advanced desktop client settings
Frequently asked questions about local and cloud recording