Re: What can an informed patient suggest instead of "zoom"?

[Denver Gingerich]

On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 02:36:23AM +0000, Connor Doherty wrote:
>    Modern phone calls use a boatload of proprietary software from your
>    Telco anyway, and you can't control the systems it goes through. Its
>    also easy to track and record.

Yes, and the same is true for the majority of our email communication too.  But 
most people (even here) don't demand that everyone they email with uses a 
fully-free email server and email client.  We can only control our own side of 
the conversation.

The point is that we shouldn't completely avoid telephony because we don't 
control all sides of the communication.  We should control as much of our side 
as we can (just as we do with email), and there are many projects that help us 
do that (such as ones that help us avoid using non-free baseband firmware), 
including one that I work on myself.

Of course, we should always prefer a free software solution, especially one 
that offers end-to-end encryption, but there's no reason to consider the 
telephone network as bad as Zoom - the telephone network is federated and 
standardized after all, and we can use it with free software.

> So it would seem that 1 piece of
>    proprietary software (Zoom) on an otherwise free system is the superior
>    option for 1. freedom, 2. privacy (Zoom supports encryption) and 3.
>    Practicality - you have the option to show your doctor something
>    visually, get in the waiting room early, easily add other participants,
>    background noise suppression, etc.
> 
>    But of course you could get all of that with Jitsi as well, so if your
>    doctor is up for it, suggest Jitsi. Biggest sell: there's no software
>    to install on either end. Also supports dialing in by phone, and other
>    goodies. It's the Free option.

I certainly agree.  If you can get your doctor to use Jitsi, definitely do 
that.  But if you can't, a telephone call is a good alternative.

Denver
https://jmp.chat/