High Fidelity Adds Maps to D.C., Minneapolis & Oakland -- Turning Its Spatial Audio Group Chat App Into Potentially Powerful Tool for Activists UPDATE: Lead Creator Philip Rosedale Responds to Security Concerns

Update, 6/11: Some readers raised serious security concerns about using this app for activism. Lead developer Philip Rosedale replies to those in Comments and below.

Here's a fascinating new update to High Fidelity's new spacial 3D audio chat app for PC/Mac web browsers and for iPhones: Now, you can overlay maps to downtown Washington D.C., Minneapolis, and Oakland on your server. That way, you can communicate with up to 100 people logged into the same server, while also knowing where they are in relation to you in the real world.

As you probably noticed already, downtown D.C., Minneapolis, and Oakland are currently major flash points for recent (and ongoing) Black Lives Matter protests that have rocked the entire world. This is not accidental, High Fidelity founder Philip Rosedale tells me, when I ask him if these city maps could become a powerful tool for real life activism:

"That's just the idea," as he puts it. "Plus, we will add the ability to actually re-position you automatically on those maps.... so you could just walk around with your phone in your pocket.  Coming soon." (In the current version, you still have to update your location via simple click and drag.)

I'm very curious if activists will find use for this. As we saw with the peaceful D.C. protest that was unexpectedly and violently broken up by the Trump Administration, I imagine protesters could find great value in a communication app that enables them to keep track of their specific locations in real time amid the chaos.

Update, 6/11: Responding to reader concerns over security while using High Fidelity for activism, Philip posted this comment:

I agree with these concerns, and we feel that one way we can be a force for good is to be serious about not collecting any data, and not building a business that is an any way dependent on such data. Here is what we are doing so far:

1. You do not create an account to use High Fidelity, you simply click on a server URL link (sent to you by the server host). What this means is that, as a visitor to a server, we do not have your email address or any other information about you.

2. The server machines that actually process the audio do not save any information - neither the audio not historical access data. Server machines are actively recycled - when there is no one on a server, the 'instance' (to use Amazon EC2 terminology) is removed from service to a standby list. This means that the server host (in addition to High Fidelity) also has no access to any sort of logging information.

Going forward, we will look into adding end-to-end encryption of the audio data to add additional security. We like this idea, but is is much more complex to design with the 3D spatialization we need to do as well... in short, the server needs to 'hear' the audio very briefly to mix it together for the receivers.

In summary, the lack of accounts and the fact that we don't log/store any information that passes through the individual servers makes High Fidelity a much more secure choice than something like Zoom or Google Meet. But, we agree with the focus on privacy and with continue to improve it in the future.

Instructions for installing these maps (along with a template for fundraising) below, via High Fidelity:

City Maps

We have also created interactive backgrounds for a number of cities, which can be used to organize virtual events around real locations, or as a live way of staying connected by sharing your RL position with others on your server.   

To check out the following maps on your server, directly after the full server URL, copy and paste a JSON link (the text highlighted in GREEN).

Washington, DC: [Your Server URL] /?mapJSON=https://hifi-json.s3.amazonaws.com/map_DC.json

Minneapolis, MN: [Your Server URL] /?mapJSON=https://hifi-json.s3.amazonaws.com/map_MN.json

Oakland, CA: [Your Server URL] /?mapJSON=https://hifi-json.s3.amazonaws.com/map_OAK.json

City Park: [Your Server URL] /?mapJSON=https://hifi-json.s3.amazonaws.com/Stage.json

Virtual Fundraiser

This template lets you host a gathering over an interactive background that includes links to donate and support organizations. Our team chose a select group of organizations that are dedicated to fighting racial inequality and injustices.

Check it out on your server -- Directly after your full server URL, copy and paste the following text: /?mapJSON=https://hifi-json.s3.amazonaws.com/Fundraiser.json

Our Knowledge Base can walk you through the steps to customizing these sample templates so you can create your own virtual event. If you have any questions or ideas, don’t hesitate to reply to this email and connect with our support team.

Comments

[seph]

No...and this is VERY irresponsible for Phil to push as a use-case.

From the Justice Department granting the DEA permission to conduct surveillance on protesters with the same tech they use on sophisticated drug cartels down to local law enforcement mass aggregating photos, videos and etc to identify protesters, the last thing we need is a new vector for them to attack like this that gives exact GPS locations at exact times with audio to boot.

I imagine all the data High Fidelity collects and shares is unencrypted as well.

No. This isn't like Twitter's moment with the Arab Spring. High Fidelity is a law enforcement surveillance godsend and Phil will hand over everything if a protest is organized on High Fidelity, some crime happens and law enforcement decides to subpoena.

Super irresponsible for Phil. Stay out this without laying out a laundry list of protections you have like end to end encryption and access control of servers and the lengths you're willing to go to resist law enforcement for your users.

[sirhc desantis]

What seph said.

Take a protest - break it in to 100 max chunks - target individuals and use their own 'intra-tracker' to pick off more - profit.

[Taylor]

Also agreed with seph. There's very good reason protestors primarily use and should continue to use end-to-end encrypted messaging apps like Signal.

Either Philip somehow missed all the news over the past week about domestic surveillance of protestors or he doesn't care and is trying to use what's going on to get users onto his failed platform. Neither is a good look.

[Philip Rosedale]

I agree with these concerns, and we feel that one way we can be a force for good is to be serious about not collecting any data, and not building a business that is an any way dependent on such data. Here is what we are doing so far:

1. You do not create an account to use High Fidelity, you simply click on a server URL link (sent to you by the server host). What this means is that, as a visitor to a server, we do not have your email address or any other information about you.

2. The server machines that actually process the audio do not save any information - neither the audio not historical access data. Server machines are actively recycled - when there is noone on a server, the 'instance' (to use Amazon EC2 terminology) is removed from service to a standby list. This means that the server host (in addition to High Fidelity) also has no access to any sort of logging information.

Going forward, we will look into adding end-to-end encryption of the audio data to add additional security. We like this idea, but is is much more complex to design with the 3D spatialization we need to do as well... in short, the server needs to 'hear' the audio very briefly to mix it together for the receivers.

In summary, the lack of accounts and the fact that we don't log/store any information that passes through the individual servers makes High Fidelity a much more secure choice than something like Zoom or Google Meet. But, we agree with the focus on privacy and with continue to improve it in the future.

[Joey1058]

This is a "half empty/half full" scenario. A word in Philip's explanation comment that bothers me, is "Standby". HiFi might not be collecting any data, but who is to say that the Feds won't request IP data? Somewhere in the chain, the Feds will get the data they want. The only difference between US and China, is that China controls their IPs, and enforces the use of WeChat. How much longer before there is a global app that everyone must use? It won't be WeChat. Nor Facebook. But the best tracking algorithms of both.

[Northern Kiara]

"As we saw with the peaceful D.C. protest that was unexpectedly and violently broken up by the Trump Administration..."

On the news we see some rioting, violence, looting and arson in relation to the DC protesting. Peaceful protesting is one thing but when it turns into violence and rioting due to opportunist groups, then doesn't something need to be done to keep an area safe and secure for citizens? In other words; the protesting in DC turned into fertile soil for destructive behaviors which "the Trump Administration" was trying to control (to keep the peace and keep ALL citizens and property safe) which you failed to recognize in that sentence above. (Really lopsided "reporting". But this is the world we live in at the moment.)

Do you just let a fire keep burning (rioting and destruction) and "hope" that it eventually burns itself out, or maybe it will just fuel more and larger fires that harm many more in the end.

Pull the weeds (violent ideologies) in the garden early, before they grow and multiply and push out the plants that truly nourish and sustain us (peace, law, and order).

Giving violent and destructive ideas places to grow and spread, whether that place is a physical place or a virtual place, needs some thoughtful and mature considerations and safeguards. Peaceful discourse and action yes. But please …. have something in place to take care of the weeds.

Thank you

[Argo]

There were two dangerous even that week. The killing of George Floyd is emblematic of what Black Americans have been going through for the last 400 years. It may be that Americans have taken notice and change will happen. The second event that was even more dangerous to the whole American experiment was that our President was close to invoking the Insurrection Act. In other countries this is called Martial Law. What should that mean to Americans? It means unleashing the full armada of tools devised to defeat insurgencies. The US military has spent a lot of time perfecting and using these tools. Thank Providence it never came to that but reports are it was close. We need to think very carefully about both events because we are moving down the road to some ugly outcomes.