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"Starting on August 24th, we will no longer support the anonymous creation of rooms on meet.jit.si, and will require the use of an account (we will be supporting #Google, #GitHub and #Facebook for starters but may modify the list later on)."

jitsi.org/blog/authentication-…


Authentication on meet.jit.si

What’s going on? Starting on August 24th, we will no longer support the anonymous creation of rooms on meet.jit.si, and will require the use of an account (we will be supporting Google, GitHub and Facebook […]
Emil Ivov (Jitsi)
#Google #Facebook #github
in reply to smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)

ijatz_La_Hojita
ijatz_La_Hojita
• •
Terrible news for privacy. On the other hand, it'll probably boost the use of Jitsi as a self-hosted app.
in reply to smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)

Juan Luis
Juan Luis
• •

Luckily folks without an account can still join, it's the *moderator* (whoever creates the call) who needs to have one.

Annoying but understandable.

in reply to Juan Luis

ijatz_La_Hojita
ijatz_La_Hojita
• •
@astrojuanlu It could eventually be tolerated, but they've literally chosen the worst possible gatekeepers (Goolag, Meta(data) and Micro$oft - GitHub).
@Juan Luis
in reply to ijatz_La_Hojita

smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)
smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)
• •

@ijatz_La_Hojita @astrojuanlu

@tio mentioned they are owned by an ad company, so that makes perfect sense then.

social.trom.tf/display/dbc8dc4…

Tio

2023-08-25 07:47:22


Well Jitsi is owned by an ad company so I can't help but think that maybe they wanna more data to serve more ads!? Also I hope this only applies for their instance. Our instance for example allows anonymous guests.

@Tio @ijatz_La_Hojita @Juan Luis
in reply to ijatz_La_Hojita

Tio
Tio
•
I have to correct it is not an ad-company but a company en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8x8 that acquired them in 2018. They do server ads via their official Jitsi Meet platform. So the bad incentive is there.

ijatz_La_Hojita reshared this.

in reply to Tio

Juan Luis
Juan Luis
• •
@tio @ijatz_La_Hojita 🤷We are not entitled to free, anonymous stuff forever. I'm thankful they run a service that, until yesterday, allowed anonymous, indefinite calls. From now on, there's more pressure on self-hosting, which is reasonable. Jitsi is open source, and there are even alternatives like github.com/livekit/livekit

GitHub - livekit/livekit: End-to-end stack for WebRTC. SFU media server and SDKs.

End-to-end stack for WebRTC. SFU media server and SDKs. - GitHub - livekit/livekit: End-to-end stack for WebRTC. SFU media server and SDKs.
GitHub
@Tio @ijatz_La_Hojita
in reply to Juan Luis

Tio
Tio
•
It's not about "entitlement" it is about the bad incentive behind these decisions. When you serve ads and probably collect people's data while doing that, then such decisions are going to be influenced by this. Yes it is open source, for now. That's great and let's see for how long it is going to remain as such.
in reply to Tio

Juan Luis
Juan Luis
• •
@tio @ijatz_La_Hojita Good question about the Jitsi ecosystem remaining open source in the future. Wondering if @s wants to share his opinion on all this.
@Tio @ijatz_La_Hojita @Saúl Ibarra Corretgé
in reply to Juan Luis

Saúl Ibarra Corretgé
Saúl Ibarra Corretgé
• •
We have had to add auth to the free service, that’s all. The project is open source in the same it has been since its inception. JaaS is the way to sustain the project, 8x8 is not an ad company, I wish people would read for 5 seconds before grabbing the pitchfork.
Yes, the choice of providers might not be ideal, but we had to launch this.
in reply to Saúl Ibarra Corretgé

Tio
Tio
•

It is problematic when any company buys open source projects. We have countless examples of this. If you run ads before and/or after Jitsi Meet calls then you will be influenced by this when you take decisions like the one above. Same way Youtube cares about what the advertisers say and like, so they regard some videos as not suited, but not suited for ads that is.

Anyway....as long as Jitsi stays open source there is some positivity to it.

Saúl Ibarra Corretgé reshared this.

in reply to Tio

Saúl Ibarra Corretgé
Saúl Ibarra Corretgé
• •
There are zero ads, I have no idea what you’re talking about. We do showcase JaaS at the end of the meeting, but that is an 8x8 product which sustains the very Jitsi Meet people use for free and only on meet.jit.si or course. There is no 3rd party involved.

Jitsi Meet

Join a WebRTC video conference powered by the Jitsi Videobridge
meet.jit.si
in reply to Saúl Ibarra Corretgé

Tio
Tio
•
Thanks for clarifying but you do advertise for paid products. Regardless if they come from the parent company. You have to understand that it is difficult to trust any company. Companies need and want to make profits, and that clouds their decisions. I remember when I used Jitsi years ago and it was a pure "video call app" with no strings attached to any company or products, and I would not see ads at the end of a call. That was nice indeed. Now I cannot trust that Jitsi will not put 3rd party ads after on meet.jit.si in the future or do other such practices.
in reply to Tio

Saúl Ibarra Corretgé
Saúl Ibarra Corretgé
• •
You are concern trolling at this point. I won’t reply any further. Have a nice day.
in reply to Saúl Ibarra Corretgé

Tio
Tio
•
Funny how you see this as trolling and not real concern when we have countless of examples of companies ruining good projects. I made a documentary recently that is spiced in that way tromsite.com/documentaries/tro… and write several books tromsite.com/books/ - maybe you understand that this is the opposite of trolling.
in reply to Tio

Juan Luis
Juan Luis
• •
@tio @ijatz_La_Hojita Can we please differentiate microtargeted advertising from nudging you to send money to a product to sustain it? I'm not interested in discussing hard anti-ad stances that also fail to acknowledge that stuff costs money and someone has to pay for it, please leave me out of this thread too
@Tio @ijatz_La_Hojita
in reply to Juan Luis

Tio
Tio
•
They do not ask you to send money to sustain them, that would be donations. They are a company that sells products and places ads to sell those products.
in reply to Juan Luis

ijatz_La_Hojita
ijatz_La_Hojita
• •

@astrojuanlu @tio I see more that move as a (bad) assumption that the anonymity component of their service, that was worth fighting for in 2013, has become less of a crucial principle in 2023. As far as I see, the reality is the exact opposite, with most Western "democracies" now promoting digital ID, CBDC's and a WHO Treaty where even health related data would contribute to a form of social credit.

I'm actually ok to pay for real privacy - but without depending on a bank 🙂.

@Tio @Juan Luis
in reply to smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)

Tio
Tio
•
Well Jitsi is owned by an ad company so I can't help but think that maybe they wanna more data to serve more ads!? Also I hope this only applies for their instance. Our instance for example allows anonymous guests.

reshared this

in reply to Tio

smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)
smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)
• •

@tio oh really. I didn't know that. 🤯

But yeah, there are plenty other Jitsi instances.

@Tio
in reply to smallcircles (Humanity Now 🕊)

Tio
Tio
•
I have to correct it is not an ad-company but a company en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8x8 that acquired them in 2018. They do server ads via their official Jitsi Meet platform. So the bad incentive is there.
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