Slashdot Mirror
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."
Even if it's not true [......]
Considering all the revelations that have emerged about surveillance in those ten years, the possibility that it's not true seems barely worth considering.
Decentralized services are a great idea, but there is one big flaw. Not enough people care about it to get a critical mass of users. Virtually everyone outside a handful of tech geeks will keep using the centralized services, so to talk to people out there in the real world, you'll need to use the centralized services too. Or, restrict yourself to these decentralized networks and find they are mostly empty, maybe several thousands of users across the whole of the world.
And good luck trying to explain to Joe/Jane Sixpack how to use them. You have to fight against the centralized data-mined services that came preinstalled on their devices, and that's a non-starter for most people.
It fails not for technical reasons. It fails because of widespread tech illiteracy in the general population.
It fails not for technical reasons. It fails because of widespread tech illiteracy in the general population.
You do see what I mean, right?
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
OH SHIT
My IP gets exposed? Like how I've just sent it to Slashdot and the countless routers and proxies between my PC and the Slashdot servers?
You mean peer to peer, instead of relaying via a server?
'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
And how do you exchange key? Do they plan a web of trust à la GPG?
Hmm, interesting. It might be worth pointing out that Skype was originally based on a decentralized service pushed through the Kazaa network:
http://arxiv.org/abs/cs/041201...
Of course, the problem with the Skype system (as it was when that paper was written) is that the decentralised nature of the network means that your video call could be routed through any number of Skype network nodes (i.e. computers) before it arrives at its destination. I think now Microsoft has replaced most of the supernodes with microsoft servers, so replace "any number of Skype network nodes" with "any number of Microsoft servers".
Presumably Tox is doing something similar to going back to the roots of Skype, with maybe a bit more encryption thrown in.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
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.
It's been renamed to Bleep and is in closed pre-alpha testing:
http://blog.bittorrent.com
Not much the average consumer can do about wire tap friendly products built into tame telco approved hardware and software as offered globally.
You can code a software layer into your consumer device that offers really good quality encryption.
The problem is not so much a back door, trap door, just that every letter and number entered on the device is open to hardware logging by default by a gov activated telco layer..
A person is walking around with a gps becon, live mic, camera and plain text capturing device they 'trust' due to a thin top layer of very good code?
A one time pad system, air gapped to get the message out? A user no longer has real time joy but is then only offering location, who made the message, where it went, when and all the details about the device that sent the message.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
The only way to stop your IP from being broadcast around the internet is to not use the internet.
The only way to receive a packet of data is for someone else to know your IP address. Either the entity initiating the send, or some kind of proxy along the way.
It's how the internet works.
Please explain how it's a legitimate concern and how to alleviate it.
As with nearly everything in life, privacy and security are not all-or-nothing, black-or-white issues - instead it is a set of trade-offs, what do you have to give up in order to get a desired result. It is at least a 2-dimensional spectrum where limiting exposure to the minimum necessary nodes versus any node that takes an interest is preferrable.
Look at it this way - most people don't have a problem giving their credit card number to a website when they make a purchase but would not find it acceptable to share their credit card number with every website they log in to.
We know by its existence that onion-routing is one way to minimize IP address exposure. It does not eliminate it, but it drastically reduces the window of exposure. That increased privacy comes at a cost, the question, as it is with all costs, is if the cost is worth it.
aka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O...
He said: or a man in the middle.
"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session." -- Judge Gideon J. Tucker
You have to be seriously insane to even consider trying to do real time video over something akin to Bittorrent.
A few months ago, I would have agreed with you. But I've been using the PopcornTime app since then, and it reliably delivers HD streams with few if any stutters. There's no reason to believe a single (video+)voice stream wouldn't be possible using a similar approach....
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
That's where encryption comes in to play when routing data anonymously.