While Jitsi is open-source, most people use the platform they provide, meet.jit.si, for immediate conference calls. They have now introduced a “Know Your Customer” policy and require at least one of the attendees to log in with a Facebook, Github (Microsoft), or Google account.

One option to avoid this is to self-host, but then you’ll be identifiable via your domain and have to maintain a server.

As a true alternative to Jitsi, there’s jami.net. It is a decentralized conference app, free open-source, and account creation is optional. It’s available for all major platforms (Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android), including on F-Droid.

  • The Cuuuuube@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    Those are all SaaS providers with meeting software available. If someone was using Jitsi, it was specifically to not use a login with any of those providers. They’re actively deciding not to continue operation with this. Its like when OnlyFans declares they wouldn’t allow adult content going forward

    • bedrooms@kbin.social
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      2 years ago

      I imagine that, at least, the videos wouldn’t go through those SAAS providers, and that’s relatively a plus still.

    • gelberhut@lemdro.id
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      2 years ago

      Never used Jitsi. Above you indirectly say that from the functional point of view Jitsi is noticeably worse than meeting solutions of MS/Google/FB. Is this really so?

      • The Cuuuuube@beehaw.org
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        2 years ago

        I don’t know how I indirectly said that. I certainly didn’t mean to. Its less well known, perfectly fine, and it’s killer feature for a long time has been being decoupled from privacy disrespecting big tech companies

        • gelberhut@lemdro.id
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          2 years ago

          “If someone was using Jitsi, it was specifically to not use a login with any of those providers” this sounds like the only reason to use jitsi is avoid big guys, and if you cannot avoid them jitsi makes no sense - i.e. “no big guys” is the only feature worth it.

          Btw, “login via Google” and use “Google meet” are significantly different cases from privacy point of view.

          • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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            2 years ago

            It’s not the only reason to use jitsi, just that most people wouldn’t bother seeking any alternative if they didn’t care.

          • The Cuuuuube@beehaw.org
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            2 years ago

            “Main motivating factor” != “Only viable reason”

            Sorry for any unclarity I introduced. And yes, login via google vs full on google meet are two different things, but if I have to login via google for Jitsi I’m suddenly far more likely to use Jami

    • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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      2 years ago

      Those are all SaaS providers with meeting software available.

      With paid for commercial meeting software available.

      If someone was using Jitsi, it was specifically to not use a login with any of those providers.

      Or because they didn’t want to pay ongoing SAAS fees.

      They’re actively deciding not to continue operation with this. Its like when OnlyFans declares they wouldn’t allow adult content going forward

      It’s literally nothing like that since Onlyfans is not an open source project that lets you host your own instance and run it however you like.

      If you want anonymity run it yourself. If you want to use their servers it’s reasonable that they expect to know a modicum about how to verify you are who you say you are. There is literally no other way to prevent abuse other than identity verification of bad actors.

  • Kajika@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    Earlier this year we saw an increase in the number of reports we received about some people using our service in ways that we cannot tolerate. To be more clear, this was not about some people merely saying things that others disliked.

    Cannot be less clear.

    Anyway I don’t understand why you’d need an account. I’ve always created rooms and share the link to people to invite. You can setup a password if you want privacy. Any reason to login?

    • cerevant@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      They are probably talking about using it to share CSAM or other illegal content. They need one person to login to be not anonymous so they can give it to the authorities if necessary.

      • 𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏@lemmy.one
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        2 years ago

        Yepp I agree, that kind of cryptic speak and this kind of drastic action taken by a FOSS project likely eludes to something of this nature IMO.

        If they want to continue to appeal to businesses they’re almost certainly not going to release a statement saying people were sharing illegal material on our platform especially when they’re not a big well-known company like Facebook, Google and Microsoft, where normal people tend to disappointingly dismiss bad findings with a “benefit of the doubt” stance.

        I assume their hosted version doesn’t have this limitation? In that sense, this news really is a non-issue I think, considering everyone usually has one of those three accounts. Someone looking for privacy should probably host their own IMO

      • Smoke@beehaw.org
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        2 years ago

        But why a Google/FB/MS account? Why isn’t an email account from an established provider enough, why centralise to three megacorps?

        • cerevant@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

          Because these three provide federated login most email providers do not.

          • Smoke@beehaw.org
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            2 years ago

            I didn’t think I’d unironically hear “This is an advantage because now one company controls all your logins” as a reply to privacy concerns.

            • cerevant@lemm.ee
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              2 years ago

              I didn’t say that. Security and privacy are nearly opposites. This is a security decision.

          • Smoke@beehaw.org
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            2 years ago

            And they’re added to spam lists all the time. All you need do is draw up a list of the twenty most popular, because frankly Gmail and outlook already cover so many while leaving room for privacy-friendly providers.

    • garrett@infosec.pub
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      2 years ago

      There was likely a broad campaign of abuse that violated some sorta law. There’s not really another reason for this move short of something that puts them in an untenable situation.

  • flatbield@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    Relax. Just use a different server. May not be exactly accurate either. How in the world do you have any idea who uses what server. I have never used this server.

    One way is join the FSF and use their server. There are others or host your own too. The load and cost needs to be spread anyway.

  • owiseedoubleyou@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    It’s hypocritical to call your service “privacy friendly” and then require the use of a Google/Facebook/GitHub account to log in. I kinda understand the reason why they do this, but they could have at least allowed you to use a more private email provider.

    • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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      2 years ago

      Calling them hypocritical is hysterical when they offer all the source code for free and you can host your own instance that doesn’t need an account.

      • esaru@beehaw.orgOP
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        2 years ago

        The software is free open source. But this case is not about the software. It’s about the web instance that the majority of the people was using. And that instance now lost its privacy feature and shouldn’t call itself privacy friendly anymore.

        • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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          2 years ago

          What information is transmitted to GitHub when you sign in with your GitHub account?

          I’ll tell you: that you signed into jitsi.

          That’s it.

  • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    I guess I don’t need their app anymore on my phone, then. More free space to me.

    Though using an other instance as mentioned by other comments is also an option, I think the mobile app supports that too, even if it’s a bit complicated

    Edit: after reading the article, this might really not be their fault. At the end they also encourage the reader to host it themselves. They are not very transparent with what’s the actual problem, though…

    • rnd@beehaw.org
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      2 years ago

      Yes, the mobile app supports third-party servers, though I wouldn’t call it complicated.

      If you want to join a room, all you do is type/paste the full URL to it instead of just the name. “Open in App” functionality will also work regardless of the server.

      If you want to host one on a third-party server, you just go into the options and replace the “https://meet.jit.si” address with one of the third-party server. Then when you create a room, it will use that server.

      • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org
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        2 years ago

        Probably complicated isn’t the best word, my issue with it is that if I understand it correctly, you would always need to change the server address if you need to connect to a meeting that was created at a different server

  • Jummit@lemmy.one
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    2 years ago

    That said, it is completely understandable that some users may feel uncomfortable using an account to access the service. For such cases we strongly recommend hosting your own deployment of Jitsi Meet. We spend a lot of effort to keep that a very simple process and this has always been the mode of use that gives people the highest degree of privacy.

    Seems like you can avoid it by self-hosting. Still a very suspicious move, kinda defeats the whole point of an alternative to big tech conference services.

    Google, GitHub and Facebook for starters but may modify the list later on

    Maybe they could support some auth provider from some fediverse app? That would be kinda neat.

    • conciselyverbose@kbin.social
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      2 years ago

      Earlier this year we saw an increase in the number of reports we received about some people using our service in ways that we cannot tolerate. To be more clear, this was not about some people merely saying things that others disliked.

      Over the past several months we tried multiple strategies in order to end the violations of our terms of service. However in the end, we determined that requiring authentication was a necessary step to continue operating meet.jit.si.

      This sounds to me like a pattern of people using it for actual serious crimes (with the obvious guess being video sharing of sex crimes/trafficking/kids). I understand that that justification is used for a lot of extremely invasive privacy violations, and stuff like scanning every file in the name of that is too far, IMO, but if you’re the only platform with resources to handle that traffic that allows anonymity, it’s very likely to grow at a significantly larger rate than the rest of your traffic.

      You can’t (shouldn’t) scan every file every individual sends to every other individual in order to prevent it, but once you have a platform that’s capable of supporting community-type activity, it’s a very real issue that you can face.

      “You can host yourself with your own choices on vetting participation because here are the tools to do it” isn’t really a bad line to draw. But you can’t have your servers be a central point for that.

  • elouboub@kbin.social
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    2 years ago

    Lol, it was my GOTO specifically because it doesn’t require a login and I can send it to my parents who need minimal clicks to enter the room. I even have family that doesn’t have a github, facebook, nor google account, so they won’t be able to join.

    Amazing move Jitsi.

    Earlier this year we saw an increase in the number of reports we received about some people using our service in ways that we cannot tolerate. To be more clear, this was not about some people merely saying things that others disliked.

    What kind of “illegal things” were they doing? Say it, so that we can comprehend. Make it make sense.

    • snooggums@kbin.social
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      2 years ago

      Safe to assume it was child porn, because that ends up being an issue on any service that lets people share images or video privately. By not stating it directly, they don’t prompt news organizations to quote the company in click bait articles about how their platform enables child porn as if that wasn’t a universal issue that all services have to actively discourage.

    • bedrooms@kbin.social
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      2 years ago

      Tbf I’d not get angry if it was jihadist recruitment, child porn, human trafficking, etc. etc.

      • knokelmaat@beehaw.org
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        2 years ago

        But won’t those criminals always find another way of communicating? If you’re doing something illegal, it’s worth it to you to go through some hoops to have safe and private communication. All this does is remove that option from less tech literate people.

  • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2 years ago

    I really hope this doesn’t become a trend, but every time I see a few buttons for signup with email coming last I have to wonder.

    • sab@kbin.social
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      2 years ago

      You can self host it as well. This is just a restriction of the online service - the problem being that most people are not going to self-host their conference calls.

      • mark@programming.dev
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        2 years ago

        Yeah they’d have to maintain upgrades security patches etc and could get pricey depending on how much storage and bandwidth is involved.

        • masterspace@lemmy.ca
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          2 years ago

          Come on, one more step and you’ll get to the part where you have to deal with preventing other people from using your instance for child porn.

  • ono@lemmy.ca
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    2 years ago

    How disappointing.

    It was great for sharing private contact info with Google/Facebook/etc friends without revealing it to those invasive services. Instead of sharing your private address where it would be harvested, you could meet in an anonymous Jitsi room, exchange addresses there, and contact each other directly from then on.

    Self-hosting doesn’t solve that use case, unless perhaps you’re willing to buy throw-away domains and IP addresses every time you do it.

  • beta_tester@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    You can also use matrix. Matrix currently uses jitsi. In the future it’ll use “element call” but right now, jitsi.

    • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      Ah. Thank you. Decent work around, still more steps sadly enough, but it’ll have to do.