New Video Sharing Platforms Are Raising Significant Privacy Concerns—Don’t Be Caught Off-Guard

In the post-COVID era, online meetings are the norm for most people, and it is routine for meetings to be either recorded directly or captured by AI programs for future reference. The ease and convenience of online meetings have also opened major opportunities for breaches of privacy. Unfortunately, this is not hypothetical but a reality that many have already experienced.

In this alert, we provide a brief overview of one such security vulnerability and some best practices to protect the privacy of your online meetings.

The Risk Posed by Webinar Aggregators

New platforms have emerged offering up search engines for webinars that have been collected and aggregated for free public viewing. As reported by NBC News in Los Angeles, these services have drawn attention and raised privacy concerns over how these videos are sourced, whether the owners have given proper permission and received adequate notice, and what practical steps the average person can take to protect their privacy.

These platforms may scan the internet for links to (supposedly) publicly accessible online meetings, record or capture those meetings, and repost the content. Some also generate their own AI-produced summaries, audio commentary, and chapter markers based on the recorded content. While company representatives defend their approach by claiming that the webinar hosts receive advance notice and an opportunity to remove any unauthorized recordings, many hosts have reported that they had no meaningful notice, that their removal requests went unanswered or were ignored, and that sessions they considered private or “members-only” appeared on these platforms.

The unauthorized posting of webinars raises several major issues:

• Copyright Infringement – Without proper authorization, the copying and display of webinar recordings may constitute copyright infringement against whoever may own the copyright in these recordings.
• Disclosure of Sensitive Information / Breach of Confidentiality – It can include the public release of attendee names, contact information, and other sensitive content. In the case of discussions between contractual parties, the public disclosures could implicate NDA or other confidentiality provisions. In the case of attorney-client discussions, these postings may also threaten the attorney-client privilege and expose the participants to drastic legal consequences.
• Violation of Statutory Privacy Obligations – Depending on your organization’s nature and location, this may implicate state privacy statutes — including the California Consumer Privacy Act for organizations with California-based participants — as well as sector-specific requirements. Organizations in health-related fields should consider whether any content captured by these platforms could run afoul of HIPAA obligations.
• Violation of Consent and Recording Laws – Many states, and numerous foreign jurisdictions, require the consent of all parties before a conversation may be recorded. Whether a party who joined a session for the purpose of recording and transmitting that recording to a third-party platform has violated applicable wiretapping or eavesdropping law is a question that turns on the specific facts and governing jurisdiction.

Best Practices to Protect Yourself

Before your next online meeting or webinar, and on an ongoing basis, consider taking the following steps:

• Add barriers to entry – Consider requiring (a) prior registration before meeting links are shared, (b) a passcode for invited participants, or (c) both. Avoid posting meeting links to private meetings in any public spaces or via email groups that you don’t control.
• Know who is in the room – Before the session begins, confirm the identity of every participant. If an unfamiliar login name, number, or email address appears in the attendee list, ask that participant to identify themselves before the meeting proceeds. An unverified attendee is a potential red flag for an unauthorized recording.
• Scrutinize any AI bots and third-party recording tools – If a bot or automated recording application joins your session, make sure that it was properly added. When in doubt, find out who set it up and where the recording is going before you proceed. (It is also worth asking whether having a third-party service observe and record the meeting is necessary and appropriate given what will be discussed.)
• Watermark your recordings – If you create and distribute video recordings of your sessions, consider embedding a watermark that will allow you to trace unauthorized copies back to their source.
• Identify copyrightable content in advance and add a copyright notice – Adding a copyright notice, such as “© [Year], [Author/Organization]”, to any presentation materials and other displayed content may help you to assert your rights and support takedown requests.
• Monitor for unauthorized releases – Consider using monitoring tools to search periodically for unauthorized postings of your content, including on platforms such as WebinarTV (https://webinartv.us/). An IP attorney can help you to identify the monitoring service that is right for your needs on your budget.

If you identify an unauthorized posting of a recorded webinar anywhere online:

• Discuss the matter with legal counsel first – An experienced attorney can advise you on your options, the strength of your rights, and the potential consequences of taking action. No two situations are exactly the same, and the best course of action may be found in the details.
• Think carefully before acting on an unauthorized release –Before sending a takedown request or taking other steps that may shine a light on the matter, keep in mind that drawing public attention to an unauthorized posting can, in some cases, amplify its reach rather than contain it. This is the phenomenon commonly known as “the Streisand Effect.”

If you have any questions on this topic or if you have found a webinar of yours posted online without your authorization, contact the Intellectual Property group at Ryan Swanson to discuss your specific situation.