What are "Protected Recording Links"?

All recording links in the Free Tier of Canvas Conferences are restricted by default. 

Restricted recording links are only accessible through the Canvas Conferences interface; when a recording is ready for viewing, users will see the list of available recordings.

Here, a user can click the link 'video' to view the recording.

The links are dynamically generated, expire after 6 hours, and are only viewable by one person. 

That means, when a user views the recording link, they can not take the URL from their browser and share it with others.

For example, here is a link to a restricted recording:

   https://recordings.reu1.blindsidenetworks.com/maintenance/dc64599ad3f967628e8e28f6c0cc9643a43424c0-1497980855997/capture/

Clicking this link will return back a 404 error saying "This may be a protected recording."

While we can't prevent a user from recording their screen while watching a recording, or right-clicking and downloading the video file for the recording, with Restricted Recording Links, we've made it more difficult for users to casually share a recording.