Beyond being considerate of the community and MCN’s code of conduct and community guidelines, also take time to consider how you want to show up and how much you want to share about yourself with others.
Privacy and Safety Tips
- Never share the Zoom session links with others! It is imperative to everyone’s privacy and safety that each person uses one of the two methods listed to access their session. Ten minutes prior to a session, attendees can either log into Sched or look in their email for the special Zoom link for that session.
- Remember that the platforms we use are set up to be private to attendees. These are not secure spaces for sharing sensitive or secret information, don’t do that on Zoom or Slack. We’ll share information about some more secure platforms soon.
- Check your Settings in Sched to ensure 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 have an account from another conference, you’ll want to double-check this).
- Check your Zoom screen name as it will display to participants by right-clicking on your name when your session starts and selecting rename. You can add your pronoun after your name here as well.
- For more anonymity, you don’t need to use your image on your profile pic.
- Virtual backgrounds can be used in Zoom video sessions to keep your location private. We’ll start a thread on slack for sharing your favorite museum tech themed ones 🙂
- You can decide whether your video is on or off in sessions that are meeting style.
- Use a VPN (see more about VPNs below) if you do not want your IP address to be linked to your conference participation.
If you need any support, each session will have a volunteer facilitator and tech support leads who are there to support your experience accessing the conference content. You can chat with them during any session to start a conversation or reach out to the tech lead on duty via Slack #mcn2021-helpdesk or email at [email protected].
Data and Privacy on the Platforms
To support you in managing the data that these tools store about you, below is an overview of tools, information about removing your data from each of them, and links to privacy and security statements.
Eventbrite
You will be sharing your name and email with MCN when you register. We will use this to communicate with you about the conference. When you register, know that Eventbrite stores data about you for their marketing and internal analysis. You can delete the information they are storing by following these instructions. For more detail check out the Eventbrite Privacy Policy.
Sched
MCN conference organizers will have access to information you upload to your profile. We use this data strictly for managing the conference experience. You can control your settings to determine what is visible to the rest of the community and check out the Sched instructions to adjust your settings.
Sched will have access to any files, content, and information shared when you sign up for an account. They also acquire information from any device you use when logged into the platform, as they identify: “such as the dates and times of your visit to our website, IP addresses, the types of browser, operating systems and languages you use… and your location.” All that said, they have instructions online to request your data and delete your data. Sched Privacy Policy.
Zoom
Remember that recorded sessions (except for Chatham House Rules) will capture your profile info—how your name is displayed, chat information, and your profile picture or video feed and microphone feed if you used it. If you are concerned about privacy, consider the name you use, the profile pic you select, and whether or not you want to use a virtual background if participating with video turned on.
After the conference, you can delete your Zoom account through your Zoom account settings by following these instructions. Your IP address connecting to the meetings and webinars will not be deleted when you delete your account. Zoom Privacy Statement.
Slack
Slack is acting like the hallways between sessions, which means it is not private. Furthermore, the service logs who says what to whom and when. You can deactivate your membership in the MCN Slack workspace, which will remove your membership, but not your personal information or messages. The messages you send and versions of messages you have sent, edited, or deleted will be retained by Slack. If desired, at the end of the conference, you can deactivate your account. To delete your profile, send a request to Slack to contact MCN’s workspace moderator for approval. Once OK’d, you can delete your information using these instructions. Also check out the Slack Privacy Policy for more detail.
It’s a pretty public place, but you might be interested in protected tweeting, read about public and protected tweeting, and of course, their Privacy Policy to know how the company uses what you contribute to the platform.
Privacy for your continued conversations
Want to continue a conversation at the MCN on a more private platform?
- 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.
- Signal – is a chat app that you can use instead of Slack 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
IP Privacy
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
Have a tool you recommend? Let us know about it! Send a message via Slack to #2021-helpdesk.
We expect everyone to continue to abide by the MCN’s Community Guidelines and Code of Conduct even when arranging events outside of the official MCN 2021 VIRTUAL schedule, that said, MCN is not responsible for any content or experience you may have in a self-organized event.