Content inspection in privacy enhanced cloud conferencing

A method comprising:

• connecting, at a security participant network device, to an online collaborative session, wherein the online collaborative session is configured to include a first participant network device, a second participant network device and a media distribution network device, wherein the media distribution network device is configured to distribute packets of the online collaborative session to the security participant network device, the first participant network device and the second participant network device, and wherein the security participant network device is configured to apply one or more security policies to the packets;
• receiving, at the security participant network device, an encrypted packet sent from the first participant network device to the media distribution network device, wherein the encrypted packet is distributed to the security participant network device by the media distribution network prior to the media distribution network device distributing the first encrypted packet to the second participant network device;
• determining decrypted content by decrypting the encrypted packet;
• applying the one or more security policies to the decrypted content;
• and
• sending a response to the media distribution network device based on the one or more security policies applied to the decrypted content.

An apparatus comprising:

• a network interface unit configured to enable network communications;
• and
• a processor, wherein the processor is configured to:
• connect, via the network interface unit, to an online collaborative session between a first participant network device, a second participant network device, and a security participant network device, wherein the security participant network device is configured to decrypt packets of the online collaborative session to apply security polices to the packets;
• receive, via the network interface unit, an encrypted packet from the first participant network device containing data to be distributed as part of the online collaborative session;
• and
• distribute, via the network interface unit, the encrypted packet to the security participant network device prior to distributing the encrypted packet to the second participant network device.