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Microsoft Makes Skype Easier To Monitor

Posted by samzenpus on from the lets-have-a-look dept.

In a follow-up to a story earlier this week, derekmead writes "Skype has gone under a number of updates and upgrades since it was bought by Microsoft last year, mostly in a bid to improve reliability. But according to a report by the Washington Post, Skype has also changed its system to make chat transcripts, as well as users' addresses and credit card numbers, more easily shared with authorities. As we've already seen with Facebook and Twitter, big Internet firms aren't digging their heels in against government requests, which shouldn't come as a shock; angering the authorities is bad business. The lesson then is that, while the Internet will always retain a vestige of its Wild West days, as companies get bigger and bigger, they're either going to play ball with governments or go the way of Kim Dotcom."

3 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Open Source by Nerdfest · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Time to switch to something where we actually know what the software is doing.

    1. Re:Open Source by cpu6502 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Will Jitsi let me call home to my old wired phone?

      Corporations working closely with government, and government working closely with corporations, including exchanges of money through campaign donations & legislative acts. Plus favorable regulations to help the megacorps and block new startups. There's a word for that...... hmmmm, right on the tip of my tongue. Starts with an F. Or a C.

      --
      My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
  2. Want to know the truth about Skype? Read on. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm posting anonymously because I don't need attention. Here's the chronology and you can find the sources of these claims on your own.

    - NSA issues a billion dollar RFP asking for a solution to wiretapping Skype
    - as years pass, NSA's concerns about Skype keep on growing, they keep on lobbying lawmakers and industry officials
    - out of the blue, MS buys Skype and pays an astronomical price
    - buying Skype at that price makes no sense for MS since it poisons their relationships with carriers and pundits are confused
    - first thing MS does is it kills supernodes and installs THOUSANDS of Linux servers running grsecurity http://grsecurity.net/news.php#Skype
    - that means that ALL Skype traffic now passes through MS servers and can be easily wiretapped since MS holds all the keys and can easily perform a MITM attack
    - NSA starts jumping from joy because their biggest black hole has been plugged.
    - MS is happy because they are now getting regular large checks from NSA

    tl;dr: Skype's a botnet and NSA paid MS to buy Skype