EDIT
This issue may be due to WebRTC being disabled. WebRTC is required for google meet, but also used for fingerprinting.
Recently I tried to join a google meet meeting in my hardened config firefox browser, and google meet didn’t let me in at all. I was confused as hell. I could join only on my phone, but not any of my three computers I tested it on. I then went into a virtual machine with regular firefox(also linux), and the meeting works. The only conclusion I can draw is that google is so desperate for my data that they refuse to service me unless I give them this.
This post intends to inform people that issues with google products may be related to their valid wish for security, and the actions they have taken in pursuit of that. The post also intends to inform people of a solution. The two apps that I recommend are:
- Jitsi Meet: This is self hosted, but you can also make a meeting with jitsi’s own servers. A excellent alternative to google meet, the only reason I didn’t use it is that I had issues the day I needed to meet, and had to fall back to google meet instead.
- Jami: This is a distributed-network chat and video calling app which is open source and a GNU package. It does require an app, but is free and open source and will serve your purpose.****_________
Teams web version also stopped working in Firefox, so just using chromium for meetings.
do you update your browser? and which Teams version you use (Classic or new)? my New Teams with Firefox deb and ublock origin looks okay.
Exhibit #17837 why Firefox isn’t “just more hardened by default”.
It’s also not necessarily just because Google wants more of your data (which they do); they may also just use a feature that can also be used to fingerprint you. But since it’s also just useful in general, it’s not disabled by default by regular Firefox.
The issue was likely WebRTC being disabled. The thing is, WebGL and WebRTC should be more secure. They shouldn’t be implemented in ways that make it easy to fingerprint the user. Unfortunately, for now I can’t change that, but I can use alternative methods like Jami or temporarily enabling rtc again to use a locally hosted instance of Jitsi.
I don’t know much about WebGL and WebRTC specifically, but sometimes it’s just inherent to the feature, and it’s literally impossible to implement it without allowing fingerprinting the user.
For example, your screen resolution/viewport size can also be used to fingerprint you. It is impossible to allow adjusting a website to different viewport sizes without leaking those viewport sizes - the only way to restrict fingerprinting is to not offer the feature of using arbitrary viewport sizes (which is what Tor browser does, for example).
Yes, it’s all a trade off of functionality for privacy.
Ironically, I just recently had a meeting I had to call into because of this, and the purpose of the meeting was to review the “great new update” lol
if your client or your employer mandates the use of Google Meets as a meeting app. you have to comply.
Employer on a job meeting on an employer device that is. Clients? Not so much …
Might be true, but is some real bullshit. There are protocols/programs that do work on multiple platform (including not web) with privacy settings turned up. Employers should consider if they want Google listening in on all of their business discussions before forcing its buggy platform on employees. I’ll wait for the one that cries that it has Google Calendar integration, when you don’t need Google for a calendar.
While you are setting up that server for Jitsi, realize its XMPP server can cover your text chat & presence needs too.
Sadly MS Teams, Google Meets/Hangouts, Zoom and webex are the defacto standard for video conferencing app in many companies atm and I never heard companies use Jitsi
Everyone I met has heard of Jitsi—guess I should feel blessed about my circle. But that doesn’t mean we should not let these places know there are opportunities to keep that voice data on-premise (which also indirectly helps the privacy of employees). I have chosen jobs for things like this though.
I do pretty much everything in Firefox but during the week I keep a Chrome window up for Hangouts and Jira.
This was not a work meeting, though I appreciate your concern.
Back in the day, all features of MS Teams didn’t work properly on Firefox either. I remember installing Edge (then in Preview for Linux) both for trying the browser and getting Teams to work as well.
I don’t know if it’s related, but I noticed very recently Google sheets quit working correctly on Firefox.
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Personally Meet hasn’t worked in Firefox for weeks, unless I clear all my Google cache and cookies, where it’ll work once and then no more.
I have Enhanced Tracking Protection set to strict and disabling uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger does not fix the issue, though I haven’t tried lowering / disabling ETP.
If you need meet, then try enabling webrtc(
media.peerconnection.enabled). BE WARNED THAT THIS MAY MAKE YOU SUSCEPTIBLE TO FINGERPRINTING. If already enabled and you’re still facing issues, then my issue might lay elsewhere.
