We have seen an increase in AI bots joining Teams Meetings unannounced so here is some advice on setting up secure Teams Meetings.
This needs to be done on a per-meeting basis as it is not currently the default setting.
Further advice on Teams Meeting options can be found here: Meeting options in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support
What are AI note-taking bots?
AI notetaking bots are third-party services that can automatically join online meetings to record audio, capture screenshots, and generate written transcripts or summaries.
When a user signs up to one of these services, their meeting invitations may be automatically forwarded to a bot. As a result, the bot can appear as a separate participant in a Teams meeting often without the knowledge or explicit consent of everyone present.
Why we recommend blocking notetaking bots
We strongly recommend that all University members take steps to prevent AI note-taking bots from accessing Teams meetings. This helps to:
- Protect confidential or sensitive information
- Ensure discussions are only visible to intended participants
- Maintain control over how meeting content is recorded, stored, or shared.
Restricting Access to Teams Meetings
- In your Teams or Outlook calendar, select the meeting.
- Select “Meeting options”. This option appears at the top of the meeting details window in Teams or in the footer of the meeting details in Outlook. This will open the meeting options window in a browser.
- Under “Meeting access”, make sure that “Who can bypass the lobby?” is set to:
- “People in my org” if you would like any University member to join the meeting without being held in the lobby for admission
- “Only organizers and co-organizers” if you would like to manually admit all attendees from the lobby.
- Make sure “People dialling in can bypass the lobby” is switched off.
- Check the “Who can present” settings under “Roles”.
- If it is set to “Everyone”, you will need to make sure that “Who can admit from the lobby” under “Meeting access” is set to “Organizers and co-organizers”.
- If you do not do this, the person who uses the AI note-taking bot will be able to admit the bot from the lobby.
- Select “Save” at the bottom of the screen.
During meetings
- Do not admit participants from the lobby if you do not recognise them or if their profile name suggests it may be a bot or automated service.
- If you notice a suspected note-taking bot already in the meeting, raise this with the meeting organiser and ask for it to be removed.
- Content captured by third-party bots may not be securely stored or handled in line with University data protection requirements.
Recording and transcription
If a meeting is being recorded or transcribed, ensure that all participants are clearly informed and have given their consent.