Google Meet "Netiquette" and Instructions

1. Gather supplies needed for the class or lesson. Make sure the laptop or Chromebook is charged and that you have supplies that the teacher recommends.

2. Be presentable. Take a few minutes to change out of your pajamas and into clean, comfortable clothes for the day. The dress code still exists, so make sure to wear acceptable clothes. Brush your hair and teeth and prepare as if you were coming to school during a typical day.

3. Choose a good location in your home to join a Meet. It is best to be in a place where you won’t be interrupted and is fairly quiet so you can concentrate and not be distracted. It is not considered appropriate to be sitting or lying in your bed or lying on the floor with your hobbies or games all around you. If you have to move to a different room, mute your camera and microphone until you’re settled again.

4. Be respectful by muting your microphone if you’re not talking. If you need to say something, raise your hand and wait for the teacher to call on you. Also, if you wouldn’t chew gum, crunch on snacks, or FaceTime a friend while in class, don’t do it during a Meet.

5. Do not record the session to protect the privacy of all participants. You must have legal consent from all of the participants to record a meeting. Inappropriate use/behavior on Google Meets will be handled according to the district’s Discipline Policy and Family Handbook.

6. Promptly exit the meeting when the meeting time is over. Your teacher will be the first one on and the last one out of the meeting.

7. Only accept invitations for meetings from school staff, and do not create your own meetings.

8. Give your best effort online as you would in the classroom.

• Actively exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities in client software to gain access to organizational networks and carry out cyber exploitation and cyberattacks;

• Exploiting communication tools to:

  • Take users offline by overloading services, or

  • Eavesdropping on meetings or conference calls;

• Hijacking video-teleconferences by inserting pornographic images, hate images, or threatening language;

• Compromising applications (used in some distance learning solutions to enable screen sharing for collaboration and presentations) to infiltrate other shared applications; and

• Attempting to penetrate sensitive meetings by using social engineering to deceive individuals into divulging information (e.g., meeting links) or by inferring meeting links from other links that use a common structure(e.g., school_name_YYYY_MM_DD).

Some video conferencing products may unintentionally expose information to nefarious cyber actors. For example, some of these products may share or sell customer information to third parties or target users to integrate product use with their personal social media accounts. This data sharing can unintentionally expose student and school information beyond intended recipients.

CISA recommends that these best practices can help mitigate the threats listed above:

1. Only use organization-approved software and tools for school-related work, including school-provided or -approved distance learning and collaboration tools to host/initiate and schedule meetings.

2. Consider sensitivity of data before exposing it (via screen share or upload) to video conference and collaboration platforms. When sharing a screen, ensure only information that needs to be shared is visible; close or minimize all other windows and consider turning off alerts for incoming messages (e.g. emails and direct messages). If displaying content from organizational intranet sites in public meetings, hide the address bar from participants before displaying the content. Use common sense—do not discuss content you would not discuss over regular telephone lines. When having sensitive discussions, use all available security measures(e.g., waiting rooms and strong passwords), ensure all attendees of the meeting are intended participants.

3. When joining meetings initiated by third parties that use collaboration tools not approved by your school, do not attempt to install software—join web (browser) based session instead. Do not use school email addresses to sign up for unauthorized/free tools.

4. Ensure that your visual and audio surroundings are secure and do not reveal any unwanted information (e.g.,confirm that whiteboards and other items on the wall are cleared of sensitive or personal information; confirm that roommates or family members are not within earshot of sensitive conversations). If available, make use of background replacement or blurring options in the collaboration tool.

5. Move, mute, or disable virtual assistants and home security cameras to avoid inadvertently recording sensitive information. Do not have sensitive discussions with potential eavesdroppers in your space or in a public area. Consider using headphones.

6. If using a personal device:

a. Require passwords to log into the device, use strong passwords, and change frequently (including passwords for other accounts accessed from the same device);

b. Only use non-privileged profile for daily activities and only use elevated privileges when administering the device;

c. Close all other, non-school-related windows and applications before and during school-related use of the personal equipment;

d. Keep the operating systems and all relevant applications up-to-date, and fully patched; and

e. Turn on automatic patching and run Anti-Virus software.

7. Check and update your home network. Change default settings and use complex passwords for your broadband router and Wi-Fi network and only share this information with people you trust. Choose a generic name for your home Wi-Fi network to avoid identifying who it belongs to or the equipment manufacturer. Update router software and ensure your Wi-Fi is encrypted with current protocols (such as WPA2 or WPA3), and confirm that legacy protocols such as WEP and WPA are disabled.

8. Tailor security precautions to be appropriate for the intended audience and content of a meeting. Do not make meetings “public” unless they are intended to be open to anybody. For meetings that will be broadly attended,ensure you have the capability to mute all attendees and limit the ability of attendees to share screens. Consider giving participants an option to participate by audio only if they have privacy concerns.

9. Particularly when conducting meetings with a large audience, have a preestablished plan that details:

a. The circumstances in which a meeting will be terminated if it is disrupted,

b. Who has the authority to make that decision, and

c. How the meeting termination will be executed.

10. For private meetings and lessons, require a meeting password and use features such as a waiting room to control the admittance of guests. For enhanced security, use randomly generated meeting codes and strong passwords and do not reuse them. Do not share a link to a meeting on an unrestricted, publicly available, or social media post. If possible, disable the ability of participants to join a meeting before the host and automatically mute participants upon entry.

11. Provide the link to the meeting directly to specific people and share passwords in a separate email. If possible, require unique participant credentials, monitor meeting members as they join, and lock an event once all desired members have joined. Use features to permit removal of any meeting guest during the course of the meeting. The host may consider staying in a meeting room until all participants have signed off.

12. Manage screen sharing, recording, and file sharing options. Limit who can share their screen to avoid any unwanted or unexpected images. Consider saving locally versus to the cloud based on the specific circumstances (e.g., need to share the recording with a wide audience or the public, using school-issued equipment versus personal equipment). Change default file names when saving recordings. Make sure to consult with your organization or district’s counsel about laws applicable to recording video conferences and sharing materials through them. Set participant expectations on session recording, screen recording, and screenshots.

13. If logging into a collaboration tool via a web browser, be careful to accurately type the domain name of the website. Be wary of links sent by unfamiliar addresses, and never click on a link to a meeting sent by a suspicious sender. Verify that meeting links sent via email are valid.

14. Do not share student credentials or links, with strangers who may use them to disrupt classes or steal information. Do not share passwords with anyone.

15. Carefully review meeting invitations sent for sessions. Check to see if the meeting originated from a known teacher or other school employee. Verify that the address has the district’s or school’s name in the URL