Video conferencing systems are currently experiencing an unexpected increase in popularity. People are working and learning from home and so, although the technology has been available for some time, many people are now more or less forced by circumstances to take their first steps with video-supported conversations in pairs or groups.
Classics of the genre such as Skype, MS Teams, Google Hangouts and some more are not unproblematic for all applications in terms of data protection and privacy.
The licensing models and data protection requirements are sometimes confusing and some providers grant themselves extensive access rights to the content exchanged by users. This is particularly worrying in view of the fact that the services usually run on servers in non-EU countries.
The service, which is currently enjoying particular popularity, has also recently attracted attention due to data protection-related controversies. The New York State Attorney General's Office has just scrutinized the data security practices of the service and demanded information from the operating company.
We would like to take this opportunity to draw your attention to two open source communication systems that make data-saving online communication simple and free of charge.
Jitsi Meet
With its current project Jitsi Meet, the Jitsi community has made data-saving and free (also in the sense of free) use of video conferences playfully simple.
Jitsi Meet simply runs in the browser (preferably Chrome) on the computer; corresponding apps are available for mobile devices with iOS or Android. A video meeting is started by calling up a Jitsi Meet server, coming up with a concise name for your conference, entering it in the "Start a new meeting" input field and clicking "GO". Done. The meeting is now running and you can invite other participants.
Then, while you can already see your conversation partners on the screen, you can lean back for a moment, rub your eyes and marvel at the fact that you still haven't given your name, email or postal address, credit card number, created an account or agreed to pages of terms and conditions. None of this is really necessary.
The meet server of the Jitsi project, meet.jit.si, which is also specified by default in the app, is localized in Amazon Web Services (AWS) across several regions outside Europe. If you have other requirements in this regard, you can easily find many other meet server instances on the web, all of which are just as freely available and can be used according to the simple principle described above, even in Europe. If you want to be on the safe side, you can simply set up your own Jitsi Meet server; the server software is also freely available.
Like all network software, Jitsi will have to prove itself in practice, including in terms of security. Experience has shown that the open source background offers the invaluable advantage that the program code can be checked for security aspects by anyone interested at any time, meaning that gaps in open source software are often found and fixed particularly quickly.
Jitsi Meet in three steps
On the mobile device:
- Install the Jitsi-Meet app in the App Store or Google Play.
- Enter a unique name for a new meeting and start the meeting.
- Invite desired conversation partners by e-mail, text message or similar, or, if invitations from others come in, simply tap on them.
On the computer:
- Start your browser, enter the address of a Jitsi Meet server in the address bar, e.g. http://meet.jit.si or an address from the list linked below.
- Enter a unique name for a new meeting, click "Go".
- Invite desired conversation partners by e-mail, text message or similar, or, if invitations from others arrive, simply click on the link provided.
List with many Jitsi Meet instances in Europe:
https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet/wiki/Jitsi-Meet-Instances
Jami
Jami is a free software package for online telephony, chats and video conferences, similar to Skype.
The software is available for many operating systems on PCs and mobile devices. After installation, an account must first be created, for which no personal data is required. You can register your own user name and assign a password, but both are not mandatory. In any case, an identity code is generated which can be passed on to others (also as a QR code) so that it can be used to log in.
You can then invite your communication partners via their user names or identification codes and manage and use these contacts to start chats, phone calls and video calls, just like with Skype. During any ongoing (video) call, you can add additional contacts at any time with a click/tap, turning the call into an online meeting.
Unlike Jitsi Meet, there is no central server involved here; the Jami network is a distributed (peer-to-peer) network of participating devices. On the one hand, this makes the structure even more secure, partly because it enables genuine end-to-end encryption, but on the other hand, it gave the impression during testing that this structure is also more susceptible to performance problems such as jerks and crashes than Jitsi Meet, for example.
Jami in three steps
On the mobile device:
- Install the Jami app in the App Store or Google Play.
- Generate ID code, with user name and password if desired
- Invite contacts via their ID codes or user names, start conversations or simply tap on incoming call requests, like a call
On the computer:
- Download and install the appropriate version for the system used from https://jami.net
- Generate ID code, with user name and password if desired
- Invite contacts via their ID codes or user names, start conversations, or simply click on incoming conversation requests
Extra step for video conferencing (on all systems): - Start video call with first contact, add further contacts via the corresponding button in the video window.