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Skype Plugs Android App Privacy Hole
alphadogg writes "Less than a week after confirming that a flaw in Skype for Android could leak sensitive user information, the Internet calling company issued an urgent update to fix the problem. Skype informed customers that 'After a period of developing and testing we have released a new version of the Skype for Android application onto the Android Market, containing a fix to the vulnerability reported to us. Please update to this version [1.0.0.983] as soon as possible in order to help protect your information.' Skype says it has had no reported examples of third-party apps misusing information from the Skype directory on Android devices, though is keeping an eye on things."
Holy crap Skype SUCKS.
Skype, a phone app that:
A. you can't remove without rooting the phone
B. Doesn't let you make voip calls over wifi
B. Has known vulnerabilities that compromise the phone security
Would it kill them to release video support for Android phones, like they did for iphone/itouch devices a while back?
My Skype account was recently emptied. Only five euros, thankfully.
I emailed Skype and said there had been fraudulent calls and if they'd refund me.
Skype replied, to the effect that they do not refund losses and fraud is due to customer error (I kid you not).
I pointed out *I* had told *them* it was fraud. You don't, especially when customers money has gone missing, assume what the customer has told you is exactly and completely the problem, and inform him you don't do refunds!
The calls made were kinda strange, there were many calls, a lot of which were zero length in duration. That didn't quite look like plain fraud. Maybe there's a bug in their billing system, or even their calling system.
Basically Skype said it was fraud, because I told them it was, and they told me it was my fault, because they said it was.
I looked on the web, found similar stories - including ones where people had auto-recharge on, and their bank accounts had taken losses too - it wasn't just their Skype account was emptied.
The problem is that Skype is pre-paid. They benefit financially from fraud.
So here we see Skype jumping through hoops to close a customer data loss bug - but steadfastly refusing to refund customer losses from mysterious calls, without a care about the cause, and so without a care about the responsibility.
They should also fix the weird bugs that make your device unusable when calling, screen keeps popping black because of accelerometers. Also audio disappears from subsequent calls when a call was dropped to due network issues.
I live in a country where I can not access many android markets with my phone so I need to download the apk with my browser and then use adb to install on phone. Where can I down load the new skype apk with my browser?
maybe that's why she's gotten to be so grotesquely big. are the 3X6 airtight bunkers being distributed in southern bell already too?
Skype is a proprietary, closed source program that enslaves users under the guise of providing a communication service. If Skype was FOSS the security hole would never have existed. Even if there was a hole, it would have been fixed in a matter of hours instead of Skype sitting on their ass for a whole week. Ekiga is FOSS and provides all the same features Skype does, except better, faster, and best of all it respects user's freedom.
definite abuser terrorist profile. makes ma bell look like sister merry francis of the mormormonic communications revolutions, or a dick without ears.
The Android Market is offering 1.6.0.13 this morning.
How about releasing the SMS sending feature onto their android version as well.
I mean I can use it from the Skype PC application, why isn't it on the mobile as well?
Or is this because phone companies don't want Skype to touch their SMS profits?
Norris Normal - Who am I?
I'm running Android 2.3 on a Samsung Droid X and I have "Skype mobile on Verizon" installed and "Skype" is available in the marketplace. Were both subject to this hole? Were both patched?
This highlights the number 1 reason PHONE OWNERS (yes... we are OWNERS) should be able to REMOVE any application they don't want, regardless if the phone vendor preloads applications on them. Users should not have to "ROOT" these stupid vendor specific phones to remove spyware like Skype. (Thanks Apple for using this control the user, restrict what users are allowed to do model)
Skype software sucks. Bad.
I have to use it for work and on my PC, it just pops up randomly with an ad that disables my screen saver (and that's with a PAID ACCOUNT that gives me access to phones and a phone number). Also, ever seen how many ports it opens up? Plus, who made that horrible excuse for a UI???
The Skype folks need some serious lessons in software development and interface design. I wish I didn't have to use it for work.