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Privacy Advocates Demand Transparency From Skype

Posted by samzenpus on from the pay-no-attention-to-the-man-behind-the-curtain dept.

tsamsoniw writes "Dozens of privacy advocates, Internet activists, and journalists have issued an open letter to Skype and Microsoft, calling on the companies to finally get around to being clear and transparent as to who has access to Skype user data and how that data is secured. 'Since Skype was acquired by Microsoft, both entities have refused to answer questions about exactly what kinds of user data can be intercepted, what user data is retained, or whether eavesdropping on Skype conversations may take place,' reads the letter, signed by such groups as the Digital Rights Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation."

7 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. forget that by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How about opening their protocol? It's a pain to have to always use their crappy client.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  2. We need a skype alternative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Time to create an open source skype alternative. We have the technology, knowhow and codecs necessary to make this happen.

    1. Re:We need a skype alternative by Darkness404 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...Except that Google is also based in the US and has a legitimate marketing program that is one court order away from being another spying program for the tyrants in power in the US.

      Honestly what we need is either a company that is openly hostile to the US government or, ironically, a company hosted in a government openly hostile to the US government to protect US citizen's privacy.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    2. Re:We need a skype alternative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Yay, another forward thinking network rollout, by people determined to avoid the inevitable. A lot of networking groups have their heads up their asses when it comes to IPV6.

  3. Fuck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How about the "close application" button close the fucking application?

    That would be a start.

    Skype is almost malware.

  4. Re:Just stop using Skype by bananaquackmoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So what you're saying is you never need to talk to someone who uses Skype?

  5. Re:Just stop using Skype by Bob9113 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So what you're saying is you never need to talk to someone who uses Skype?

    What is more reasonable; for me to ask them to install a second VoIP client that does not spy on them, or for them to ask me to install a second VoIP client that does spy on me?

    --
    Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance