Holistic Safety

We are all showing up to the AMC with different needs for emotional, digital, and physical safety, especially in this time of deepening crisis and uprising. The AMC is proud to partner with our long-time collaborators: the Detroit Safety Team and Tiny Gigantic to offer these holistic safety tips and resources.

Community safety at the AMC2022 is stewarded by the Detroit Safety Team. The goal of the Safety Team is to practice transformative justice and to support the emotional health and well-being of our participants. 

The Safety Team is on call for these hours of the AMC weekend:

The Safety Team is on call for these hours of theAMC weekend:

• Thursday, June 30th: 3:30pm-7:00pm EST
• Friday, July 1st: 3:30pm-8:30pm EST
• Saturday, July 2nd: 3:30pm – 8:30pm EST
• Sunday, July 3rd: 3:30pm-6:00pm EST

A secure Safety Team chatline can be found in the Accelevents platform.

If you or someone you know experiences a situation of harm or abuse, is trying to negotiate sharing space, or is going through a rough time and needs some support, please reach out to the Safety Team in the link listed above.

If you or someone you know experiences a situation of harm or abuse, is trying to negotiate sharing space, or is going through a rough time and needs some support, please reach out to the Safety Team in the link listed above.

Why are we using Accelevents?

Why are we using Accelevents?

While we have yet to discover the platform of our dreams, Accelevents has been thoughtfully vetted by our team for alignment with our values around digital safety, accessibility, and security, while also fulfilling technical and interaction needs for a large conference. We do acknowledge that this platform uses Amazon Web Hosting, which we had hoped to avoid but found to be the industry standard. However, we have control of our data, and all data related to the AMC will be deleted after the conference. You may also have your own personal data deleted at any time. Accelevents encrypts your data, honors Do Not Track signals, and includes in their Privacy Policy that they will not sell your personal data. To support the safety of all participants, we will have moderators online.

Why are we using Zoom?

With full intent to divest from using Zoom, our team conducted extensive research and evaluation of alternate video conferencing platforms. Unfortunately, we were unable to find other video conferencing platforms that offer the range of accessibility features we need, specifically around supporting CART, ASL, and multiple audio channels for language interpretation. For this reason, we have decided to use Zoom for sessions and virtual Network Gatherings.

It is our hope that, for future AMCs, there will be video conferencing platforms available to us — as alternatives to Zoom —  that fully support accessibility as well as consent and data privacy.

Some tips for personal safety

As a virtual AMC participant, consider how you want to show up and how much you want to share about yourself with others.  At previous IRL (in real life) AMCs, you have had ways of indicating your preferences for privacy like wearing lanyards to indicate you do not want to be photographed. Here are some things you can do to manage your virtual presence:

• Know that most virtual spaces are not private including Zoom and Accelevents. Take care not to share sensitive or secret information on Zoom or Accelevents.
• Check your Settings in Accelevents  to make sure that your profile is not publicly visible in the People tab if you don’t want it to be. Accelevents keeps new profiles visible by default, so you will need to toggle this option off in your privacy settings. 
• Choose a screenname that you are comfortable with in this space, you don’t need to share your full name or use the same handle you use publicly elsewhere if you don’t want to.
• Be thoughtful about sharing your personal contact information.
• Decide whether your video is on or off in sessions.
• Use a Virtual Private Networks (see more about VPN’s below) if you do not want your IP address to be linked to your conference participation.

If you need any support in this:

• Each session will have a Radical Hospitality Facilitator (aka Tech Support Lead) who is there to support your experience from using the tools to accessing content. You can chat with them during any session to start a conversation.
• Reach out to us at the Help Desk in the Slack or via email at amc@alliedmedia.org

Privacy for your continued conversations

Want to continue a conversation that you started with someone(s) at the AMC? Here  are some tools that offer better privacy than Zoom. *Please note: the AMC is not responsible for any content or experience you may have in a self-organized event that is not a part of the official AMC2020 schedule.*  

• 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.
• Whereby – whereby.com – is a video call platform that offers free end-to-end encrypted calls for groups of 4 or less. People can join your meeting without creating an account. If you start an account with Whereby, it stores information associated with your account. Privacy Policy Works best on Chrome.
• Element.io/ – element.io/ – an open-source communications platform, provides end-to-end encryption on all messages shared within the platform, ensuring that only those in the conversation can see the conversation. Element never has access to conversations or data shared in the space, and also does not track, datamine, or use ads on its platform. Element offers users the option to host their own server.

Phone and computer 1-1 call, video call, chat and group chat designed for privacy

• Signal – is an app that you can use 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

• Wire – is an app that you can use on your phone, computer, or tablet for end-to-end encrypted chats, phone calls, and video calls. When you set this up, you set a screenname and share your screenname for people to contact you. It is open source and free for individual use and costs money if you want to set up a group account. wire.com

IP Privacy  

Every device on the internet has its own Internet Protocol (IP) address. This is specific to your device when it is connected to the internet. 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

In preparation for the virtual AMC, we researched dozens of possible platforms, looking for a dream tool that would be robust, user-friendly, scalable to thousands of users, and aligned with our values for accessibility, digital safety and consentful technology.  No such tool currently exists.  We look forward to working with the visionary technologists of our AMC network to explore how we might build the dream virtual platform for future AMCs.  Contact us at amc@alliedmedia.org if you have ideas for that!

In the meantime, to support you in your managing the data that these tools store about you, we are sharing links here to privacy and security statements and information about removing your data from each.

Tool/Companies
Submittable	You used this if you submitted a session proposal. To review, update, or delete your personal information from Submittable, you can contact them directly at info@submittable.com Links to privacy and security statements Privacy Policy Security
Eventbrite	You used this to register for the AMC. Eventbrite may use your data for marketing and internal analysis. Eventbrite may share your information with third parties. You can delete the information Eventbrite is storing about you in your Eventbrite account settings. Instructions Links to privacy and security statements Privacy Policy Security
Accelevents	You are participating in plenaries, ceremonies, gatherings, and sessions on Accelevents. You are also accessing resources, help, and connecting with other attendees on Accelevents.  You can delete your account through your account settings on Accelevents.  Link to instructions https://support.accelevents.com/en/articles/5350993-how-to-delete-your-account?location=conversation Link to privacy and security statement https://www.accelevents.com/privacy/privacy
Zoom	You are participating in sessions, workshops, and gatherings on Zoom. You can delete your Zoom account through your Zoom account settings. Zoom makes a record of meetings you join based on your IP address and this will not be deleted when you delete your account. Link to instructions https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201363243-How-Do-I-Delete-Terminate-My-Account Link to privacy and security statement https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/privacy-and-security.html

Post-AMC, AMP will use the following participant data for reflection, evaluation, planning, and fundraising purposes:

• Aggregated demographic information from Eventbrite.  For ex: it’s important for us to know– is the number of people who identify as disabled/chronically ill increasing year-to-year, or decreasing?  From there, we can assess what may be impacting a change in one direction or another with the goal of increasing conference accessibility for the next year.  
• Individual registration data from Eventbrite. If you registered at the $250 level or above, we will treat your registration fee as a tax-deductible donation and add you to our list of organizational donors. This means that we will send you a thank you note, tax acknowledgement letter, and appeals for future donations. 
• Aggregated engagement data from Accelevents and Zoom. This may include: how many people attended each session, what content generated the most conversation, and how many connections were made between participants via direct messages.  

Still have questions? Send an email to amc@alliedmedia.org.