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VoIP Wiretapping
pisqon writes "VoIP News has an article discussing a U.S. government decision that will extend wiretapping regulations to the Internet. From the article: 'The Federal Communications Commission voted 5-0 last week to prohibit businesses from offering broadband or Internet phone service unless they provide police with backdoors for wiretapping access. Formal regulations are expected by early next year.'" Update: 03/28 04:52 GMT by Z : As several readers have pointed out, this story is a mite out of date. Good conversation in the comments, though.
The FBI plays mean tricks on people. My Aunt and her husband wanted for murder, embezzlement, and some more minor crimes. They both ran away in the early eighties. Agents called my grandmother's house pretending to be doctors and told her the her daughter was in a New York hostipal in critical condition. They had her phone tapped and were hoping that if she knew where Connie was that she would call her back and they'd be able to trace the call. The point of tapping phones is that they're one of the most widely used means of communication.
Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom told me last fall that "we do not have any legal obligation to provide any means for interception" in his company's VoIP software. How will you force a company based in Luxembourg to insert backdoors in its software when it has no obligation to do so?
This doesn't qualify as an official statement from Skype, but it pretty much says it all, I think.