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Zoom Communications Compliance: The Ultimate Guide

Blog The Ultimate Explainer Guide to Zoom Communications Compliance 2025
Blog The Ultimate Explainer Guide to Zoom Communications Compliance 2025

Zoom Communications Compliance: The Ultimate Guide

Introduction

As hybrid and remote work models continue to dominate the global workforce, unified communications platforms like Zoom have become indispensable tools for business collaboration. Organizations across industries increasingly rely on Zoom Workplace’s Meetings, Phone, Whiteboards and Zoom’s innovative and popular features like AI Companion to stay connected and productive.

However, this type of rapid adoption of collaboration innovation brings complex compliance and security challenges that cannot be overlooked. Ensuring communications compliance within Zoom is more critical than ever to meet regulatory requirements, protect sensitive data, and avoid hefty fines.

This guide explores the evolving compliance landscape, the challenges faced by compliance and IT leaders, and best practices for achieving secure and compliant communication on Zoom’s video conferencing platform, including Zoom meetings.

Top Compliance Challenges for Heads of Unified Communications and IT Compliance Teams

1. Navigating Constantly Changing Regulations

Regulatory bodies worldwide continue to refine and expand compliance requirements, impacting how organizations capture, store, and manage communication data. From financial services regulations like SEC Rule 17a-4 and MiFID II to healthcare’s HIPAA mandates and education’s FERPA guidelines, compliance standards are becoming more stringent. Keeping up with these evolving security requirements demands agility and comprehensive security measures.

2. Managing Multi-Modal Communications and Off-Channel Risks

Zoom’s extensive capabilities—including virtual meetings, Zoom Phone calls, AI Companion-generated content, screen sharing, whiteboarding, and more—introduce new complexities for compliance teams. Capturing, archiving, and supervising these diverse communication formats are essential to mitigating noncompliance risks and ensuring that all interactions comply with industry regulations.

3. Data Storage and Volume Management

As communication data grows exponentially, organizations face challenges in storing, managing, and securing large volumes of information. Legacy archives often hinder seamless data access and scalability, limiting the ability to leverage Zoom’s advanced collaboration tools effectively. Balancing data retention policies with storage optimization is critical for maintaining security controls.

4. Balancing Productivity with Compliance

Compliance strategies must support, not hinder, workplace productivity. Disabling essential features like screen sharing, in-meeting chat, or Zoom’s AI Companion due to compliance concerns negatively impacts user experience. Organizations must implement security features and privacy settings that enable collaboration without exposing the business to regulatory risks.

The Evolving Compliance Landscape for Zoom Communications

As communication tools like Zoom continue to evolve, the importance of Digital Communications Governance and Archiving (DCGA) has become paramount. DCGA encompasses the processes, policies, and technologies used to capture, archive, and supervise all forms of digital communications—ensuring compliance with regulatory standards, mitigating risks, and enabling efficient data management. In regulated industries, robust DCGA practices are essential to meet the stringent requirements of various global regulations.

Key Global Regulations Impacting Zoom Usage

  • Financial services firms are required to comply with regulations such as SEC Rule 17a-4, MiFID II, FINRA, and CFTC, which mandate the use of a recording feature and the retention of voice, video, and chat communications to ensure transparency and accountability.
  • Healthcare organizations must adhere to HIPAA and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations, which enforce strict security measures for protecting patient data shared during telemedicine sessions and virtual meetings.
  • Educational institutions are obligated to follow FERPA guidelines to safeguard student communications and are also subject to financial services regulations like SEC Rule 17a-4 and FINRA when managing endowments and pension funds, requiring secure and accurate recordkeeping.
  • State and local government agencies must meet the requirements of FOIA and various state-specific records retention laws by implementing comprehensive archiving and efficient search capabilities for all communication data.

Expanding Regulatory Focus on Multi-Modal Communications

The rise of multi-modal communications within Zoom—from video conferences and phone calls to AI-generated meeting summaries and virtual events—demands comprehensive security controls. Organizations must ensure that security requirements are met across all communication channels to mitigate compliance risks.

Zoom’s Native Compliance Solutions: ZCM and ZCM Plus

Zoom Compliance Manager (ZCM) offers foundational compliance capabilities designed to help organizations meet industry regulations. With ZCM, businesses can securely capture and archive both AI-generated and human communications across Zoom Workplace, including Meetings, Team Chat, Whiteboards, and AI Companion content. ZCM supports flexible storage options, allowing organizations to archive data in their preferred storage systems while maintaining compliance with detailed reconciliation reports.

Key features of ZCM include:

  • Comprehensive Capture – Seamlessly captures video, voice, chat, whiteboard content, and AI-generated data.
  • Secure Archiving – Stores communications in compliance with industry regulations, with support for third-party or native storage.
  • Search and eDiscovery – Enables efficient search and retrieval of archived communications for audits, legal holds, and investigations.
  • AI-Powered Risk Detection – Identifies potential compliance risks with automated workflows for streamlined review and supervision.

ZCM Plus builds upon these core features by providing enhanced compliance capabilities for organizations with more complex needs. It delivers deeper insights into communication data and improves oversight with advanced tracking and analysis tools.

Additional ZCM Plus capabilities include:

  • Threaded Conversations – Consolidates conversation replay across multiple modalities (chat, meetings, file sharing) into a single, searchable timeline for better context.
  • Document Activity Tracking – Traces where, when, and with whom documents have been shared across communication channels.
  • Attachment Oversight – Flags and reviews attachments within conversations to prevent data leakage and security risks.
  • Communication Pattern Analysis – Uncovers communication trends and relationships to identify potential compliance or security concerns.

The robust DCGA compliance capabilities of ZCM and ZCM Plus are powered by Theta Lake’s award-winning risk and compliance technology, enabling organizations to meet regulatory requirements while maintaining secure and seamless collaboration within Zoom.

Best Practices for Achieving Comprehensive Zoom Compliance

1. Capture All Communication Modalities

Ensure complete capture of voice, video, chat, screen sharing, whiteboarding, and AI Companion outputs. This holistic approach prevents compliance gaps across virtual meetings and video conferences.

2. Implement AI-Driven Risk Detection and Automation

Automated security controls can proactively identify compliance risks, enabling timely remediation. AI-driven tools help organizations proactively manage compliance, along with the growing volume of communication data.

3. Optimize Data Storage and Archiving Strategies

Adopt scalable, secure storage solutions that align with regulatory requirements. Combining secure data storage with flexible retention policies ensures that compliance needs are met without compromising performance.

4. Maintain Productivity While Mitigating Risks

Empower employees to collaborate using all Zoom features—screen sharing, in-meeting chat, and virtual events—by implementing strong security features and privacy settings. This balance fosters innovation while protecting against compliance risks.

5. Prepare for Evolving Compliance Needs

Stay ahead of emerging regulations and evolving communication trends by adopting flexible compliance solutions that scale with organizational growth. Regular audits and updates to security measures ensure ongoing compliance.

Conclusion

Organizations in regulated industries using Zoom Workplace must prioritize communications compliance to navigate an increasingly complex regulatory environment. With the rapid expansion of hybrid and remote work, Zoom’s diverse communication channels—including virtual meetings, video conferences, Zoom Phone, AI Companion, and whiteboarding—present both opportunities and challenges. These tools enhance collaboration but also introduce new compliance and security risks that must be proactively managed.

Compliance leaders face growing challenges in keeping up with evolving regulations, managing multi-modal communications, mitigating off-channel risks, and balancing security requirements with user productivity. The increasing volume of communication data and the limitations of legacy storage systems further complicate compliance efforts, making it essential for organizations to adopt scalable and adaptable solutions.

Zoom Compliance Manager (ZCM) and ZCM Plus offer tiered, comprehensive compliance capabilities that empower organizations to meet regulatory demands without sacrificing collaboration. Powered by Theta Lake’s award-winning risk and compliance technology, these solutions provide secure capture, archiving, AI-driven risk detection, and advanced oversight across all Zoom communication channels. ZCM delivers foundational compliance tools with secure storage and search functionality, while ZCM Plus offers enhanced features like threaded conversation views and document activity tracking for deeper compliance insights.

By understanding the regulatory landscape, implementing best practices, and leveraging robust solutions like ZCM and ZCM Plus, powered by Theta Lake, organizations can confidently drive productivity while safeguarding against compliance risks. Embracing a proactive compliance strategy ensures businesses can fully utilize Zoom’s advanced features—from meeting passcodes and screen sharing to AI Companion and whiteboarding—without compromising on security or regulatory requirements.

Learn more about Theta Lake’s support of DCGA Compliance for all of Zoom Workplace. 

Tonya Severance

Experienced Product Marketer with 10 years of expertise in B2B SaaS & PaaS marketing, product marketing, demand gen, and content strategy. Linkedin

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