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SOM Zoom Support

Sign Up for Zoom

All university faculty, staff, and students with an Onyen have access to get a Zoom Account.

  1. First, please be sure to manually sign out of any non-university Zoom accounts you have using the icon at the top right of any Zoom webpage before attempting to sign up for or log in to your campus Zoom. If not, you will be automatically logged into the last account you used.
  2. To Sign Up for an account, go to the UNC Zoom Portal and click Sign In.
  3. Log in with Your Onyen and Password.
  4. Your account should automatically be generated, and you will be taken to your Zoom Profile.
  5. If you require a HIPAA-enabled Zoom account, please first visit the Account Profile page to see if the Account Name displays “HIPAA.” If this does not display, and you require a HIPAA-enabled account, please read the next section of this page.
  6. You must also be sure to log out and back into any Zoom software with the UNC Zoom Account. Visit our User Guides for instructions on this.

HIPAA-Enabled Accounts

How to Request a HIPAA-Enabled Account

If you need to use your Zoom account for the transmission of ePHI, you must have a HIPAA-enabled account. HIPAA-enabled accounts have some Zoom features disabled. Visit your Account Profile page to determine if you have one. The Account Name will display “HIPAA”. If you have a UNC Zoom account that you need changed into a HIPAA Enabled account:

  1. Go to the SOM Academic Technology support request (Onyen/Password required).
  2. Once logged in, set the “How can we help you?” field to “Report a Video Conferencing Issue“.
  3. In the “Additional Information” field, write that you would like to request a HIPAA-enabled Zoom account. Please also include the current account name and account alias from the Account Profile Page.
  4. Click the blue Request button (at right side of screen).
  5. A staff member will follow up with you when the change has been made.

Difference Between HIPAA-Enabled and Other Zoom Accounts

The HIPAA-enabled account has been approved for transmission of ePHI through an agreement (BAA) with Zoom and the UNC Privacy office. Part of the provisions of this agreement include:

  • Cloud recording is not allowed. Local recording is allowed. However, when ePHI is involved, you must only record to a School of Medicine managed computer that has been set up for use with ePHI or directly to approved online storage (OneDrive Sync or campus file storage such as your home directory or department group or shared drives).
  • Meeting attendance reports will not have useful information as participant names will be obfuscated.

Opting Out of HIPAA-Enabled Account

In some limited cases, users may opt out of the School of Medicine HIPAA-enabled account. The primary cases for this are:

  • School of Medicine instructors that do not utilize ePHI in their materials, and require the cloud recording or attendance features as part of their distance learning strategy
  • Users who are primarily assigned to School of Medicine departments, but have work obligations in other UNC schools such that they need to be part of that school’s Zoom tenant for access to specific resources

In both cases, if opting out, the user would no longer be allowed to transmit ePHI with their Zoom Account. The account would also no longer be managed by the School of Medicine IT at this point, and while most support could still be provided, support for features not provided on the School of Medicine instance may be forwarded to their new account’s support group.

To opt out of the HIPAA-enabled account:

  1. Go to the SOM Classroom Support Request page (Onyen login required).
  2. Once logged in, select “I need something else” in the “How can we help you?” section.
  3. In the “Additional Information” field, write “I want to opt out of my HIPAA-enabled Zoom account.”
  4. Click the blue Submit button in the upper right side of the page.
  5. A support staff member will follow up to provide you with instructions for completing the account switch process.

Security Recommendations

Users should review the School of Medicine IT PHI Conferencing Policy for guidance on more general practices for having web conferences with ePHI. In addition, please consider the following practices specific to Zoom.

Limiting Access to Your Meeting

The following settings could be applied when scheduling meetings so that attendees who should have access to the meeting do not face obstacles when joining, and unwanted parties cannot join.

  • Require a Password When Scheduling New Meetings: This is an account setting that is turned on by default for most School of Medicine accounts. Upcoming meetings that were scheduled in the past may not have this setting turned on. Please edit and add passwords to any previously scheduled meetings.
  • Only Authenticated Users Can Join Meetings: This setting can be enabled in your account settings. Only attendees with a UNC Zoom account will be able to join meetings scheduled with this setting enabled.
    • If you expect participants from outside UNC Chapel Hill (do not have an ONYEN), do not enable this setting.
  • Waiting Room: This can be enabled in your account settings, when scheduling meetings, or during a meeting. The host will need to monitor the waiting room at the start and during the meeting to admit attendees into the meeting.
  • Join Before Host: This can be accessed in your account settings or when scheduling meetings. A meeting could be considered more secure with this disabled. If this setting is disabled attendees will not have access to the meeting until the host has started it.
  • Lock Meetings: This can be used during a meeting to prevent anyone else from joining a meeting that is active and you are hosting. This can also be turned on during a meeting from the security menu.
  • Remove Participants: During a meeting the host can remove participants through the security or participants menus.

Limiting Attendee Features

If your meeting is public or will have many attendees it may be hard to limit access to your meeting, instead you can limit the features and controls they have access to. Please use access limiting measures before relying on these feature limiting settings.

  • Only Host Share: When scheduling a meeting you can disable content sharing for participants in your account settings. During the meeting you can make participants co-host if they need to share.
  • Mute All: If you have a large meeting it can be hard to mute participants individually, you can use the Mute All function instead.
  • Do Not Allow Participants to Unmute: During a meeting the host can disable the ability for participants to unmute themselves.
  • Participant Video: When scheduling a meeting the participant and host video (webcam) can be disabled.
  • Disable Chat: The chat feature can be disabled during meetings if you do not want your participants to use it.