Holistic Safety

We are all showing up to the AMC with different needs for emotional, digital, and physical safety, especially in this time of deepening crisis and uprising. The AMC is proud to partner with our long-time collaborators: the Detroit Safety Team and Tiny Gigantic to offer these holistic safety tips and resources.

Community safety at the AMC2020 is stewarded by the Detroit Safety Team. The goal of the Safety Team is to practice transformative justice and to support the emotional health and well-being of our participants.

The Safety Team is on call for these hours of the AMC weekend:

• Thursday, July 23rd: 3:30pm-8:00pm EST
• Friday, July 24th: 2:30pm-8:30pm EST
• Saturday, July 25th: 2:30pm – 8:30pm EST
• Sunday, July 26th: 2:00pm-8:00pm EST

Contact the Safety Team via a secure chat line here (look for the chat window at the bottom right corner of the page).

If you or someone you know experiences a situation of harm or abuse, is trying to negotiate sharing space, or is going through a rough time and needs some support, please reach out to the Safety Team in the link listed above.

Why are we using Zoom?

Since serious security and privacy problems with Zoom became clear at the beginning of the pandemic, AMP has joined calls for the company to address these flaws, which were leading to violent digital attacks on our communities. In response to users demands, Zoom has made 100 security upgrades since April.  We will be training all AMC presenters in how to use the Zoom security features to protect sessions against potential attacks. 

We looked at alternatives including fully-encrypted open-source Jitsi, and chose Zoom because it supports our needs for large numbers of people, types of interactions, accessibility, and usability. 

Zoom is not private. Meeting on Zoom is like meeting in a rented space in a corporate office building that keeps a record of who joins meetings. While it will support us in meeting in the numbers and interactions we choose, it is not a private place for sensitive information or secrets.

While we have decided to use Zoom, we are looking forward to exploring how to work with tools like Jitsi and the technology developers of our AMC community to create better options for future AMCs.

Why are we using Slack?

The hallways, the lawn, the registration zone, the sidewalks and streets connecting venues– all those places where you bump into people, meet people, mingle. We have chosen Slack as a place to spark and build these connections. 

We looked at open-source encrypted and private chatting tools like Mattermost and Riot, and chose Slack because it best fit our needs for an interlinked space with multiple threaded discussions where people can easily start emergent discussions.

Slack is not private. It’s like a whiteboard in a public hallway that Slack takes frequent photos of periodically and logs who says what to whom and when. 

For recommendations about ways to continue private and sensitive conversations, please see the section below on Privacy for your Continued Conversations.

Some tips for personal safety

When entering the virtual AMC, consider how you want to show up and how much you want to share about yourself with others.  At previous IRL (in real life) AMCs, you have had ways of indicating your preferences for privacy like wearing lanyards to indicate you do not want to be photographed. Here are some things you can do to manage your virtual presence:

• Know that most virtual spaces are not private including Zoom and Slack. Take care not to share sensitive or secret information on Zoom or Slack.
• Check your Settings in Sched to make sure that your profile is not publicly visible if you don’t want it to be (Sched keeps new profiles private by default, but if you already had an account, you’ll want to double check this.)
• Choose a screenname that you are comfortable with in this space, you don’t need to share your full name or use the same handle you use publicly elsewhere if you don’t want to. Please add your pronoun to your screenname by right-clicking on your name when your Zoom session starts.
• Be thoughtful about sharing your personal contact information.
• For more anonymity, download and use one of our AMC profile pics instead of an actual photo.
• Use a digital background in video sessions to keep your location private.
• Decide whether your video is on or off in sessions 
• Use a digital background (coming soon!) in video sessions to keep your location private.
• Use a VPN (see more about VPN’s below) if you do not want your IP address to be linked to your conference participation.

If you need any support in this:

• Each session will have a Radical Hospitality Facilitator (aka Tech Support Lead) who is there to support your experience from using the tools to accessing content. You can chat with them during any session to start a conversation.
• Reach out to us at the Help Desk in the Slack or via email at amc@alliedmedia.org

Privacy for your continued conversations

Want to continue a conversation that you started with someone(s) at the AMC? Here  are some tools that offer better privacy than Zoom. *Please note: the AMC is not responsible for any content or experience you may have in a self-organized event that is not a part of the official AMC2020 schedule.*  

• Jitsi – is a video call platform. Designed for privacy, it does not require an account to use and is designed to not store information about who has joined or information from the meeting after the meeting ends. It is free and open source and MayFirst Movement Technology Cooperative hosts a version: meet.mayfirst.org Works best on Chrome.
  
• Whereby – whereby.com – is a video call platform that offers free end-to-end encrypted calls for groups of 4 or less. People can join your meeting without creating an account. If you start an account with Whereby, it stores information associated with your account. Privacy Policy Works best on Chrome.

Phone and computer 1-1 call, video call, chat and group chat designed for privacy

• Signal – is an app that you can use on your phone, computer, or tablet for end-to-end encrypted chats, phone calls, video calls. Signal does not keep a record of who is communicating with whom. You’ll need to set it up with a phone number first and share your number for people to contact you. You can use something like a google voice number if you’d like to keep your personal phone number more private. Signal is free and open source. signal.org

• Wire – is an app that you can use on your phone, computer, or tablet for end-to-end encrypted chats, phone calls, and video calls. When you set this up, you set a screenname and share your screenname for people to contact you. It is open source and free for individual use and costs money if you want to set up a group account. wire.com

IP Privacy  

Every device on the internet has its own Internet Protocol (IP) address. This is specific to your device when it is connected to the internet. Many services keep a record of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses that have visited or used the service. If you want to keep your internet activities more private by keeping your personal IP address private, you can use tools like a VPN or Tor Browser.

• Psiphon VPN – is a virtual private network. When you are using it, the services you use and websites you visit will see and record the IP address of Psiphon’s network instead of your personal IP address. Psiphon is free and open source psiphon.ca

• Tor Browser – is a web browser. When you use this browser, the websites you visit will see and record the IP address of an “exit node” in the Tor network instead of your personal IP address. This is only for sites you browse using the Tor Browser. If you connect to a service through a different kind of software or app, like the Zoom app, your connection will not be protected through Tor and your actual IP address will show up in Zoom records. Tor is free and open source. torproject.org

In preparation for the virtual AMC, we researched dozens of possible platforms, looking for a dream tool that would be robust, user-friendly, scalable to thousands of users, and aligned with our values for accessibility, digital safety and consentful technology.  No such tool currently exists.  We look forward to working with the visionary technologists of our AMC network to explore how we might build the dream virtual platform for future AMCs.  Contact us at amc@alliedmedia.org if you have ideas for that!

In the meantime, to support you in your managing the data that these tools store about you, we are sharing links here to privacy and security statements and information about removing your data from each.

Tool/Companies
Submittable	You used this if you submitted a session proposal. To review, update, or delete your personal information from Submittable, you can contact them directly at info@submittable.com Links to privacy and security statements Privacy Policy Security
Eventbrite	You used this to register for the AMC. Eventbrite may use your data for marketing and internal analysis. Eventbrite may share your information with third parties. You can delete the information Eventbrite is storing about you in your Eventbrite account settings. Instructions Links to privacy and security statements Privacy Policy Security
Sched	You are using Sched to engage with the AMC agenda.  You can delete your profile and information associated with your profile through your account settings. Instructions Link to privacy and security statement Privacy Policy
Zoom	You are participating in interactive sessions, by default, on Zoom. You can delete your Zoom account through your Zoom account settings. Zoom makes a record of meetings you join based on your IP address and this will not be deleted when you delete your account. Instructions Link to privacy and security statement Privacy Policy
Slack	You are using Slack to chat with other AMCers and AMC help desk. The messages you send and versions of messages you have sent, edited or deleted will be retained by Slack even when you leave the AMC workspace or close your account. You can request that your personal profile and information are removed from Slack by submitting a request to AMP via this form [coming soon].  Instructions You can deactivate your membership in the AMC workspace which will remove your membership, but not your personal information or messages. Instructions Link to privacy and security statements Privacy Policy Security
YouTube	YouTube is owned by Google which keeps a record of your activities across Google products. On YouTube this includes your searches, and interactions with media, ads, and other accounts. To participate in chats on YouTube, you need to be signed in to a YouTube account.  You can delete data Google stores about you and your Google accounts. Instructions

Post-AMC, Allied Media Projects (AMP) will use the following participant data for reflection, evaluation, planning, and fundraising purposes:

Aggregated demographic information from Eventbrite. For ex: it’s important for us to know– is the number of people who identify as disabled/chronically ill increasing year-to-year, or decreasing?  From there, we can assess what may be impacting a change in one direction or another with the goal of increasing conference accessibility for the next year.  

Individual registration data from Eventbrite. If you registered at the $250 level or above, we will treat your registration fee as a tax-deductible donation and add you to our list of organizational donors. This means that we will send you a thank you note, tax acknowledgement letter, and appeals for future donations. 

Aggregated engagement data from Sched and Slack. This may include: how many people attended each session, what content generated the most conversation, and how many connections were made between participants via direct messages.

Still have questions? Send an email to amc@alliedmedia.org or ask the #help-desk channel in the Allied Media Conference Slack community.