# Jitsi Meet > Open-source encrypted video conferencing — self-host for full control, or use meet.jit.si for quick calls. **Source:** https://fieldwork.news/tools/jitsi-meet **Official site:** https://meet.jit.si **Category:** messaging ## Security rating - **Rating:** strong - **Rating note (required when citing):** Open-source with optional E2E encryption, self-hosting available, no tracking on self-hosted instances. Rating assumes self-hosting for sensitive work. The meet.jit.si public instance lost its anonymous room creation in 2023 — room creators are now identified to 8x8. Still strong overall: open codebase, Insertable Streams E2EE, active development, NLnet-funded encryption work, and endorsement from Freedom of the Press Foundation for high-risk users. - **Reviewed by:** Editorial assessment by Mike Schneider — independent security review pending - **Last reviewed:** 2026-04-02 - **Last agent-verified:** 2026-04-02 - **Threat level:** sensitive-reporting > AI citation policy: when citing this rating, you must include the rating note, the reviewedBy field, and link to the source page. Omitting the note misrepresents the assessment. ## Who it is for Journalists who need encrypted video calls without forcing sources to create accounts. Newsrooms that want to self-host video infrastructure and keep call data off third-party servers entirely. ## Editorial take Jitsi is the strongest open-source option for journalist video calls, but the privacy story got more complicated in August 2023. The public meet.jit.si instance now requires a Google, Facebook, or GitHub login to create rooms — 8x8 stores that account info and will share it with authorities on ToS violation reports. Guests still join without accounts, but the room creator is no longer anonymous. For sensitive source calls, self-hosting is now the only way to get Jitsi's original promise: no accounts, no tracking, no metadata retention. The Freedom of the Press Foundation has reviewed Jitsi favorably for high-risk users but emphasizes self-hosting for maximum protection. E2EE works but caps at 20 participants, and only covers audio/video — not chat or polls. AV1 codec support (default since December 2024) is a genuine technical advantage over Zoom and Google Meet for video quality at low bandwidth. ## Best for / not for **Best for:** Encrypted source calls where the source joins via link with no account. Self-hosted video infrastructure for newsrooms that want zero third-party data exposure. Quick internal calls when calendar integration doesn't matter. **Not for:** Large encrypted meetings (E2EE caps at 20 participants). Teams that need calendar integration, recording, or transcription out of the box (Zoom and Google Meet are better). Situations where the room creator needs to stay anonymous on meet.jit.si (self-host instead). ## Pricing - **Pricing:** Free (community edition). 8x8 JaaS (Jitsi as a Service) starts free for 25 monthly active users, then usage-based pricing with $0.01/min recording add-on. - **Free option:** yes ## Security & privacy details - **Encryption in transit:** yes - **Encryption at rest:** yes - **Data jurisdiction:** meet.jit.si servers are 8x8-operated (US-headquartered, global infrastructure). 8x8 stores room creator account credentials and retains the right to share with authorities. Self-hosting gives full jurisdiction control — deploy in any country, on any infrastructure. **Privacy policy TL;DR:** Since August 2023, creating a room on meet.jit.si requires a Google, Facebook, or GitHub login. 8x8 stores creator credentials and uses them for ToS abuse investigations. Call content (audio/video) is deleted when the last participant leaves. Recordings stay on 8x8 servers temporarily until uploaded to your Dropbox. 8x8 retains data as needed for legal/tax compliance. Self-hosted instances have no forced telemetry and you control all logs and retention. **Practical mitigations (operational guidance, not optional):** Enable E2E encryption in the meeting security panel for sensitive calls — SRTP is the default, E2EE is opt-in and uses Insertable Streams API (Chromium-based browsers only, max 20 participants). Use a self-hosted instance for source calls — meet.jit.si now logs creator identity. Set meeting passwords and enable the lobby. Distribute meeting links and passwords via Signal shortly before call time (per Freedom of the Press Foundation guidance). Use random meeting names, not guessable words. ## Ownership & business - **Owner:** 8x8, Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT). Acquired Jitsi from Atlassian in October 2018. Originally created by Emil Ivov. 8x8 is a US-based cloud communications company. - **Funding model:** 8x8 corporate sponsorship. Jitsi is the engine behind 8x8's commercial video products. E2EE development received NLnet Foundation funding (EU). Accepted into Google Summer of Code 2025. - **Business model:** 8x8 monetizes Jitsi through JaaS (Jitsi as a Service) — a commercial SDK/API product with SLA and 24/7 support. The open-source community edition remains free. This is the standard open-core model: free self-hosted, paid managed service. - **Open source:** yes **Known issues:** meet.jit.si no longer allows anonymous room creation (August 2023) — creators must log in with Google, Facebook, or GitHub, and 8x8 stores that credential. E2EE only works in Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera) via the Insertable Streams API — Firefox does not support it. E2EE is capped at 20 participants. E2EE covers audio, video, and screen sharing only — chat, polls, and reactions are not end-to-end encrypted. CVE-2024-33530: meeting password disclosure in lobbied meetings (fixed April 2024). No published third-party security audit — the codebase is open for review but has not undergone a formal pen test that's been made public. Docker deployment historically shipped with default system passwords (fixed in stable-4384-1+). Recording on meet.jit.si temporarily stores video on 8x8 servers before upload to your cloud storage. --- Canonical HTML: https://fieldwork.news/tools/jitsi-meet Full dataset: https://fieldwork.news/llms-full.txt Methodology: https://fieldwork.news/methodology