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Jitsi Meet: open source alternative to spy video app Zoom

Due to the massive transition to remote work, the Zoom video conferencing application has grown in popularity . But this is not ideal from a security point of view. Although Zoom offers end-to-end encryption for text chats, encryption of video conferencing can be activated on the host side , according to the developers of the proprietary program.

But the type of encryption cannot be verified, because the code is closed, and from the point of view of privacy, the Zoom application raises questions from some experts. For example, the host can activate an odd function "tracking of attention» (Attention tracking). It tracks that the participant is not distracted from the meeting for more than 30 seconds (the application window should be open and active).

Of course, users found a way out of the situation. For example, you can launch the active Zoom window on a smartphone or tablet, and at this time work quietly on a computer or laptop, or vice versa.


The official Zoom privacy policy is suspicious , in which the company warns about collecting a large amount of personal data on users:

  • name;
  • physical adress;
  • mailing address;
  • phone numbers;
  • place of work and position;
  • Facebook profile information
  • computer or smartphone specifications;
  • IP address
  • "Information that you upload, provide or create while using the service."

Moreover, the document says almost nothing why this information is collected and how it is used. The company cannot even directly answer the question "Do you sell this information?"



Last year , the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) warned that “Zoom was deliberately designed to bypass browser security settings and remotely turn on a user's webcam without his knowledge or consent.”

In July 2019, security experts were surprised to learn that after installing and uninstalling the Zoom client on localhost remains an active web server that can reinstall Zoom without user intervention.



Of course, the company tried to quickly fix this bug (which was actually a feature) and apologize to the public, but Zoom’s attitude to privacy has not changed.

In March 2020, it turned out that the Zoom app for iOS sends data to Facebook, even if you don’t have a Facebook account . An analysis of network activity showed that the application connects to the Facebook Graph API, sends there information about the application’s opening, information about the user's device (model, time zone, city, telecom operator) and a unique advertising identifier that is generated on the device for profiling and tracking the user in order to target ads.



Sending data to Facebook is not mentioned in the privacy policy of Zoom. The company's management claims that this happened by accident: “Zoom takes the privacy of its users extremely seriously,” the official statement said . “We initially implemented the Facebook login feature to provide our users with another convenient way to access our platform.” However, we recently learned that the Facebook SDK collects unnecessary data from devices. In the coming days, the Facebook SDK will be removed. For the changes to take effect, they will need to upgrade to the latest version of the application, and we recommend that they do so. We sincerely apologize for this oversight and remain firmly committed to protecting the data of our users. ”



At the same time, Consumer Reports magazine is printing tips on how to protect yourself from Zoom intrusive surveillance , and experts are asking the company to change its official privacy policy .

Jitsi meet


Fortunately, Zoom is not the only option for video conferencing. There is also Facetime (only for Mac and iOS), WhatsApp (owned by Facebook), Wire (no free version), Google Meet (no end-to-end encryption, requires a Google account), Skype Meet, Cisco Webex, StarLeaf, Nextcloud Talk and others.

Finally, there is a free, full-featured and open source Jitsi Meet program . To use it, you do not need to register an account, and the program itself works in a browser.



Some functions:


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  • Slack, Google Calendar Office 365

Users can share their desktop or give presentations. If you want to give public lectures, you can broadcast the video conference on YouTube. Conversely, you can watch YouTube videos all together in a Jitsi chat. Documents can be jointly edited in Etherpad , there is also a connection for those who want to get through the phone.

Conference participants have the opportunity to virtually raise their hand using their own button - to signal that you want to get the next word. There is a built-in chat for text messaging, as well as a recording function for the current discussion.

Technically advanced users can upgrade their own Jitsu Videobridge server, which processes in real time thousands of video streams via WebRTC. This option may be suitable for companies that do not want to give traffic outside and can organize video conferences themselves.

useful links



Note. At the moment, the Jitsi web client has small problems when working in Firefox, because this browser does not support simulcast very well (simultaneous translation to several nodes). As a result, if a user joins the conference on Firefox, all the others have a sharp increase in CPU load and battery consumption. Mozilla promises to rectify the situation soon.


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