Jitsi, the open-source video conferencing platform, now requires a Google, Microsoft, or Facebook account for their online service

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.

Cube6392,
@Cube6392@beehaw.org avatar

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

adamnejm,
@adamnejm@programming.dev avatar

Its like when OnlyFans declares they wouldn’t allow adult content

So… Tumblr?

ram,
@ram@lemmy.ca avatar

OnlyFans announced it too, but walked back on it later.

snooggums,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

I laughed pretty hard at OnlyFans trying to remove the only thing that I was aware they hosted.

Cube6392,
@Cube6392@beehaw.org avatar

Yeah but at least Tumblr had a majority of non porn content. Jitsi is almost entirely privacy wonks, and only fans is almost entirely porn

bedrooms,

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

gelberhut,
@gelberhut@lemdro.id avatar

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?

anlumo,

My experience has been that Jitsi is much better when the connection is bad. However, its default setting is that video is cropped to be square, which is very bad. I don’t even think that the user can change that.

Cube6392,
@Cube6392@beehaw.org avatar

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,
@gelberhut@lemdro.id avatar

“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.

Cube6392,
@Cube6392@beehaw.org avatar

“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

Swedneck,
@Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

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

masterspace,

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.

bmaxv,
@bmaxv@noc.social avatar

@esaru

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

Makes it a non issue.

It's free as in freedom not as in free beer and that's that.

Jitsi doesn't have to offer free service and they particularly don't have to provide anonymity.

The same is true for the fediverse, since the admins have info that could help identify users. That has it's uses too.

esaru,

Jitsi remains free. As you can see, this isn’t about money but rather about privacy, which has diminished compared to before.

The issue with centralized systems becomes more apparent: the provders are held accountable for their users’ actions.

PeterBronez,
@PeterBronez@hachyderm.io avatar

@esaru @bmaxv @technology concur that this reduces privacy for users of Jitsi’s hosted service. It also has some concrete benefits for Jitsi - they get to outsource account validation and security. Perhaps they were struggling to contain abuse.

masterspace,

Privacy has not diminished, you can host your own instance of the jitsi software account-free and take on the liability of people using your server for child porn yourself if you want to.

iHUNTcriminals,

Well looks like jitsis gone.

masterspace,

The sky is falling the sky is falling!

beta_tester,

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

z3rOR0ne,
@z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml avatar

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

Twashe,

RIP

Jummit,
@Jummit@lemmy.one avatar

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, (edited )

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.

shortwavesurfer,

Well, time to find another instance, cause fuck that noise

Tick_Dracy,

RIP Jitsi ಠ_ಠ

Zoldyck,

lmao

gonzoknowsdotcom1,

This is its downfall

PlatypusXray,

It ded

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