[Noisebridge-discuss] NoiseBridge on Slack + CryptoParty on Zoom?

[Steve Phillips]

The ideal solution is to make Jitsi Meet great!  Until then:

Here's Mozilla's advice on how to make your Zoom gatherings more private:
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/tips-make-your-zoom-gatherings-more-private/

Privacy issues with Zoom, some have which have just been fixed (see below):
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/what-you-should-know-about-online-tools-during-covid-19-crisis

Tracking the name of the currently-active window on your desktop was a
significant one, and Zoom just removed it due to the outcry:
https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/115000538083-Attendee-attention-tracking

Another just-removed privacy-unfriendly feature: Zoom's "Login with
Facebook" feature used FB's SDK, which was recording info about a user's
device and sending it to FB --
https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/28/21197967/zoom-ios-app-code-tracking-facebook

Zoom is responding to the pressure, which is great!  A huge privacy-related
outcry was unthinkable even 3 years ago, but now they're common -- and have
impact.  Let's keep the pressure up!


> I wish that those NoiseBridge folks that care less for Privacy would
rethink their position, because, IMHO, NoiseBridge is giving a bad example.

We've urged people to move over, but institutional momentum is a tricky
thing 😕; hard to get many people to change their behavior all at once,
which is why Facebook still have over 2 billion users even though almost
everyone distrusts it.

--Steve


On Sat, Apr 4, 2020 at 6:13 PM Steve Phillips <steve at tryingtobeawesome.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hey Daniel,
>>
>> 1. Why is *NoiseBridge using Slack (Corporate),* isn't privacy a concern?
>>>
>>
>> I believe the historical reason is that, circa 2015, the people running
>> Noisebridge's infrastructure were overburdened and people wanted something
>> that would reliably be up.
>>
>> I and James have set up RocketChat at https://chat.noisebridge.info/ but
>> it hasn't caught on. #networkeffects
>>
>> RocketChat, Riot, and others didn't exist back when Noisebridge started
>> using Slack.
>>
>> Private conversations are on Slack, and so yes, it'd be great to use
>> something end-to-end encrypted and open source instead.
>>
>>
>>
>>> 2. Why is tomorrow's (2020/04/05) *NoiseBridge CryptoParty* being held
>>> via *Zoom*, when the party itself is about *privacy*?
>>>
>> >
>> > 3. Why not use their open source alternatives?
>>
>> It is a public event. The way I think about this is: privacy violations
>> occur when information you want to be private to certain individuals is
>> visible to people outside of that group.
>>
>> Zoom v. others was discussed internally and I encouraged Kinnard to use
>> Zoom for this public event because Jitsi Meet doesn't work very well at all
>> if you either have more than a few people joining, or even 1 person has a
>> slow internet connection, which is especially common in the global south.
>>
>> More good is being done for the world by making the event accessible to
>> all :-).
>>
>> If we want people to use FLOSS software then we need to (1) make it work
>> well and (2) financially support the people and organizations making that
>> software so they have the resources they need to make it work well!
>>
>> --Steve Phillips
>> Cypherpunk and privacy activist since 2012
>>
>
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