Zoom can now be used indefinitely
The ETH community may now use the Zoom videoconferencing application indefinitely for their work. ETH Zurich has negotiated a solution that incorporates the Canton of Zurich’s data protection recommendations and expands the usage options for ETH students, researchers and staff.
The corona crisis has turned the Zoom videoconferencing system into an indispensable tool for online teaching and virtual meetings at ETH Zurich. Thus far the IT Services multimedia team has distributed nearly 10,000 professional licences with full functionality, primarily for staff. Most students are currently using free licences that grant only limited functionality.
Previously, the Canton of Zurich’s Data Protection Office had only approved Zoom for use during the coronavirus pandemic because of data protection concerns, the main reason being that it was not possible to conclude licence agreements with Zoom under Swiss law and jurisdiction. For this reason, the Executive Board initially granted provisional approval for the use of the software only until the end of 2020. Once it became clear that the crisis would continue into 2021, the Board extended their approval until the end of June 2021.
In order to allow Zoom to be used indefinitely, IT Services worked together with the external pageSWITCH foundation, which helps Swiss universities deal with digitalisation issues, to negotiate a framework agreement with Zoom that incorporates the Canton's data protection recommendations. A key point is that licence agreements concluded under this contract are subject to Swiss law and jurisdiction. Zoom guarantees that all meetings and data are processed and stored in data centres based in the European Union. The Canton of Zurich’s Data Protection Office is in agreement with Zoom being used indefinitely as long as certain recommendations are taken into account. These external pagerecommendations are integrated into the framework agreement and the standard settings configured by IT Services.
Additional option for meetings with more than 300 participants
IT Services was also able to achieve favourable licensing conditions during the negotiations with Zoom. Instead of being limited to a maximum of 10,000 licences, the university can now provide all members of the ETH community with pro licences, including students. For webinars and meetings with more than 300 participants, ETH was also able to acquire various add-on options that previously had to be paid for separately. Pro licences will be distributed to students during the semester break. Starting in the Autumn Semester, Zoom licences can be acquired in the IT Services’ IT shop (similar to licences for MS365/Teams).
Furthermore, ETH Zurich received an additional 20 terabytes of space at no extra charge (previously this was only 7 terabytes). The increased storage space allows the university to save recordings of lectures in Zoom for up to two years.