Keep a Meeting Subject Private
Marking a meeting Private hides its subject line from people who are not invited, so it does not appear on the display outside a meeting room, or to colleagues looking at your calendar.
Make a New Meeting Private
When creating the meeting, select Private (padlock icon) on the toolbar. If you cannot see it, seelct the three dots (...) to find it.
Mark an existing meeting private
Right-click the existing appointment and select Private.
What this does and does not do
It does: hide the subject from the room display and from colleagues browsing your calendar. They will see that you are busy, not what about.
It does not:
- Hide anything from the people you invited — they see everything
- Hide the meeting from anyone with delegate access to your calendar who has permission to view private items
- Protect attachments, chat, notes or a recording
- Make the meeting confidential in any legal sense, or exempt it from Right to Information
Private is a courtesy setting, not a security control.
If the content genuinely sensitive
- Keep detail out of the subject line and the invitation body. "Meeting" or "Discussion" tells anyone glancing at a screen nothing. Put the substance in a document, not the invite.
- Invite only the people who need to be there. The invitee list is the actual control.
- Do not attach sensitive documents to the invite. Share a link with restricted access instead, or bring them another way.
- Think about where you hold it. Marking the subject private does nothing about a glass-walled room, or a conversation audible from the corridor.
- Consider whether to record. A recording of a sensitive discussion is a record, and it persists.