What we know about video conferencing with BigBlueButton
By Kunal MehtaOriginally posted on freedom.press
If you work remotely on the web, you're probably getting comfortable with multiple video chat tools. At Freedom of the Press Foundation, we've published a high-level comparison of some common video chat applications, and many others maintain detailed comparison spreadsheets to help you compare dozens of tools. We also wanted to dive deeper into what we know about a few individual tools. This "fact sheet" will detail some security, privacy, usability, and anti-abuse properties of BigBlueButton. In particular, we're focusing on properties that are critical to high-risk users, like journalists, and developed a series of questions to help examine these properties.
BigBlueButton is an online learning and video conferencing platform. As the name suggests, you press a big blue button to start a meeting. Unlike most video conferencing systems, BigBlueButton is designed specifically for educational applications, with features like whiteboards, break-out rooms, and polling. It also integrates with various learning management systems (e.g. Canvas, Moodle). Everything happens in your web browser, so there's no need for any additional software.