Tox, a Skype Replacement Built On 'Privacy First'

An anonymous reader writes: Rumors of back door access to Skype have plagued the communication software for the better part of a decade. Even if it's not true, Skype is owned by Microsoft, which is beholden to data requests from law enforcement. Because of these issues, a group of developers started work on Tox, which aims to rebuild the functionality of Skype with an emphasis on privacy. "The main thing the Tox team is trying to do, besides provide encryption, is create a tool that requires no central servers whatsoever—not even ones that you would host yourself. It relies on the same technology that BitTorrent uses to provide direct connections between users, so there's no central hub to snoop on or take down."

Comments

Microsoft Gave the NSA Backdoor access to Skype ..

[Anonymous Coward]

'A lengthy new Guardian report claims Microsoft worked directly with the NSA by giving complete back door access to Outlook (and Hotmail), Skype and SkyDrive. The report basically says each service was easily circumvented in order to make the NSA’s job of sleuthing data incredibly easy, as if your private info was selling at a weekend garage sale. One NSA document even described the collaboration with Microsoft as a “team sport.”' ref

Privacy Last

[westlake]

Readers of this story will have noticed the links to four of the major social media sites, including Facebook.

Since the earliest days of USENET and IRC Chat, the geek has a flawless record of making one-on-one communication over the Internet as painful a process as possible for the non-technical user.

It took the commercial services like Sype to break the spell.

Re:Tox? What happened to BitTorrent Chat?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's been renamed to Bleep and is in closed pre-alpha testing:
http://blog.bittorrent.com

Re:Key exchange

[nadaou]

Phil Zimmermann has already done all this. It's called ZRTP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...