Encrypted Video Meetings: What Encryption Actually Protects
All major video meeting platforms encrypt traffic in transit. But 'encrypted' means different things depending on whether the platform uses transport encryption or end-to-end encryption — and the difference matters significantly for compliance and privacy.
Transport encryption vs end-to-end encryption
Transport encryption (TLS/SRTP) protects your audio and video in transit between your device and the meeting server. The server decrypts the stream to route it to other participants, mix audio, enable transcription, and process recordings. This means the platform vendor can access your meeting content at the server level. Most platforms — Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, MeetOye in standard mode — use transport encryption.
End-to-end encryption (E2EE) means the audio and video are encrypted on your device and can only be decrypted by the other participants' devices. The server routes encrypted packets without decrypting them. This prevents the platform vendor from accessing meeting content. The tradeoff: E2EE disables server-side features like transcription, recording, and AI notes.
What each level of encryption protects against
- Transport encryption protects against: network interception between your device and the server, man-in-the-middle attacks on the transport layer.
- Transport encryption does NOT protect against: the platform vendor accessing meeting content, law enforcement requests to the platform, a breach of the platform's server infrastructure.
- E2EE protects against: all of the above, including the platform vendor.
- E2EE does NOT protect against: recording by a participant, screen capture, or endpoint compromise.
MeetOye's encryption approach
MeetOye uses transport encryption (TLS/SRTP) for all standard meetings, which enables Oya transcription and AI recap. Strict E2EE mode is available for meetings where maximum privacy is required — in strict E2EE mode, Oya is disabled, recording is disabled, and media stays in participant browsers. Teams in regulated industries should use strict E2EE for sensitive discussions and standard mode for general team meetings where AI notes are valuable.