Gmail now has FREE calling to US

[TheState]

I know we had a lot of discussions about google voice during the Schiff phonebanking days, but google has now introduced free calling to anywhere in the US.

There was a pop-up when I logged into my account today. I tried it out and it works great. Going to make my conference calls a lot easier.

[WaltM]

doesnt skype have it too?

[TheState]

doesnt skype have it too?

I think skype is only free if you call people who have skype, otherwise you have to pay.

[Reason]

probably has a direct carbon copy of each call going to the NSA lol

/sigh

[someperson]

probably has a direct carbon copy of each call going to the NSA lol

/sigh
lol ;)

[libertythor]

probably has a direct carbon copy of each call going to the NSA lol

/sigh

I wouldn't doubt it, or at the very least they retain a recorded copy for two years.

[smartguy911]

I am sure all calls will go through Google's datacenter where certain keywords will be picked up on so they can target ads to you when you are online. They already do that by analyzing emails, browsing behavior in search and now voice.

[Matt Collins]

I wonder if this can be utilized for phone banking purposes?

[Matt Collins]

probably has a direct carbon copy of each call going to the NSA lol

/sighThat happens over the phone system anyway. Haven't you ever heard of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_%28signals_intelligence%29 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivore_%28software%29 ????

[TheState]

Bump for today's crew. This could be very handy.

[Rael]

Not going to use anymore of Google's spying services.

[Vessol]

This is good news for me if for some reason I am left without a cell phone..


Not going to use anymore of Google's spying services.

Who are you kidding yourself? They spy on you everywhere else, no matter what you use. You ISP tracks every keylog. All of your phone calls from anywhere are recorded. Stop thinking that you can get anywhere without your privacy being broken. I'm not saying it's moral, I'm just saying that it's unrealistic to think that only some things are spied on and other things aren't.

[Krugerrand]

probably has a direct carbon copy of each call going to the NSA lol

/sigh

That was my first thought.

[Krugerrand]

This is good news for me if for some reason I am left without a cell phone..

Who are you kidding yourself? They spy on you everywhere else, no matter what you use. You ISP tracks every keylog. All of your phone calls from anywhere are recorded. Stop thinking that you can get anywhere without your privacy being broken. I'm not saying it's moral, I'm just saying that it's unrealistic to think that only some things are spied on and other things aren't.

But, Google is better at it than the other guys.

[Rael]

This is good news for me if for some reason I am left without a cell phone..



Who are you kidding yourself? They spy on you everywhere else, no matter what you use. You ISP tracks every keylog. All of your phone calls from anywhere are recorded. Stop thinking that you can get anywhere without your privacy being broken. I'm not saying it's moral, I'm just saying that it's unrealistic to think that only some things are spied on and other things aren't.

There are still alternatives. Yahoo mail at least deletes your emails after 3 months, for example, vs gmail which keeps them forever.

Also, it's never been proven to my satisfaction that "all phone calls are recorded", even though people often claim this to be the case. And to say that your "ISP tracks every keylog" isn't really correct. they can't see what you send over SSL, only the final destination. And they can't see what you send over TOR.

I'm not ready to throw up my hands and give up on privacy just yet.

[torchbearer]

dialpad.com was the first to offer this service for free years ago. i think they charge now. but it was a good way from my friends overseas to keep in touch.

[angelatc]

I had the pop up yesterday. but it didn't work.

[torchbearer]

i had a device that allowed you to plug a regular phone into your computer.
so when you made the phone calls, it felt like a real phone call. plus, you could hook up chordless phones so you wouldn't be stuck at the computer.

[libertarian4321]

i had a device that allowed you to plug a regular phone into your computer.
so when you made the phone calls, it felt like a real phone call. plus, you could hook up chordless phones so you wouldn't be stuck at the computer.

The magic jack does that- I replaced my land line with it a couple of months ago.

[Fox McCloud]

this already can be done with Google Voice+ Gizmo5...'course Google bought Gizmo5 and you can't get a new account with them, for now.

I'm expecting Google to unveil a unified Google voice service that allows you to receive calls from anywhere for free and free outgoing calls to the US and Canada, with just a single Google Voice account.

After all, look at Magic Jack; for a $40 fee (probably only covers the cost of the device) you get free unlimited calling to the US; it's payed for with ad revenue; Google is really nothing more than a giant advertising corporation that entices you with various services so it can gather data and enhance their advertising business--given Google's power, they could very easily offer free VoIP (with a number) to quite a few people...now that'd be amazing =p

[libertythor]

I can't wait for Mexico to one day deregulate the telecommunications industry at least to American levels, but for the meanwhile it is either trying to use Vonage and trying to avoid the scrambling signals or Magic Jack.

[MRoCkEd]

works great!

[Mini-Me]

There are still alternatives. Yahoo mail at least deletes your emails after 3 months, for example, vs gmail which keeps them forever.

Also, it's never been proven to my satisfaction that "all phone calls are recorded", even though people often claim this to be the case. And to say that your "ISP tracks every keylog" isn't really correct. they can't see what you send over SSL, only the final destination. And they can't see what you send over TOR.

I'm not ready to throw up my hands and give up on privacy just yet.

I'm with you, Rael. I do assume that all phone calls are recorded by now (given the NSA's been splitting all communications at AT&T for years, at the very least), but Google is such a one-stop shop for coordinating all of the spying done on everyone that I want to use their services as little as possible. I really don't want my phone calls, emails, search terms, and potentially a list of every website I've ever visited (check out http://jamiedubs.com/googlealarm/), all sitting in the same place with a pretty little bow on the box. If nothing else, I'd rather make the nosy sons of bitches do a bit of collating work when they decide to check in on everything I've ever done.

In that vein, if anyone can name an alternative [non-spying] search engine that doesn't suck, I'm all ears. God, I wish Cuil didn't suck. For the record, I know about Scroogle and use them occasionally, but the constant propaganda and slow search speeds annoy me, and I don't entirely trust that they aren't "controlled opposition" to Google anyway.

EDIT: This thread has convinced me to stop being so lazy, and I am now surveying more search engines than I realized still existed.
So far, https://www.startpage.com/ / https://www.ixquick.com/ is my favorite: It's fast, pretty, and it gives me excellent search results for my obscure test terms (until tonight, I haven't found a search engine other than Google that gives me satisfactory results for them :)). Plus, it claims to be the most private search engine in the world, because it logs nothing about you. I gave the link that uses SSL encryption, but they have regular http pages too.

I also found some other ones of similar quality and commitment to privacy:
https://duckduckgo.com/ - this one is also excellent
http://www.yauba.com/ - the search results aren't as good for me here, but they're still good enough that I'd use it as a Google alternative, had I not found the other two

I never thought I'd say this just like three hours ago, but I am Google free forever...minus the information I'm constantly sending them about almost every site I visit, and that pesky gmail account I still need to replace. ;)

[AlexMerced]

This is pretty sweet... to bad I hate calling people

[Maestro232]

FYI, I have a setup at home that gets me free incoming and outgoing calls. Basically I use SipSorcery.com to act as a free switchboard which calls my GoogleVoice # which calls my SipGate.com number. SipGate is one of a few free SIP clients, so several will work. I even connected my analogue phone into my internet connection via a special $50 router so that we can use our regular cordless phone as a VOIP device. It's pretty slick.

[Rael]

I'm with you, Rael. I do assume that all phone calls are recorded by now (given the NSA's been splitting all communications at AT&T for years, at the very least), but Google is such a one-stop shop for coordinating all of the spying done on everyone that I want to use their services as little as possible. I really don't want my phone calls, emails, search terms, and potentially a list of every website I've ever visited (check out http://jamiedubs.com/googlealarm/), all sitting in the same place with a pretty little bow on the box. If nothing else, I'd rather make the nosy sons of bitches do a bit of collating work when they decide to check in on everything I've ever done.

In that vein, if anyone can name an alternative [non-spying] search engine that doesn't suck, I'm all ears. God, I wish Cuil didn't suck. For the record, I know about Scroogle and use them occasionally, but the constant propaganda and slow search speeds annoy me, and I don't entirely trust that they aren't "controlled opposition" to Google anyway.

EDIT: This thread has convinced me to stop being so lazy, and I am now surveying more search engines than I realized still existed.
So far, https://www.startpage.com/ / https://www.ixquick.com/ is my favorite: It's fast, pretty, and it gives me excellent search results for my obscure test terms (until tonight, I haven't found a search engine other than Google that gives me satisfactory results for them :)). Plus, it claims to be the most private search engine in the world, because it logs nothing about you. I gave the link that uses SSL encryption, but they have regular http pages too.

I also found some other ones of similar quality and commitment to privacy:
https://duckduckgo.com/ - this one is also excellent
http://www.yauba.com/ - the search results aren't as good for me here, but they're still good enough that I'd use it as a Google alternative, had I not found the other two

I never thought I'd say this just like three hours ago, but I am Google free forever...minus the information I'm constantly sending them about almost every site I visit, and that pesky gmail account I still need to replace. ;)

I always wonder if sites like scroogle and ixquick might not be honeypots. People with the most need for privacy would go there and it seems like a great collection spot.

However, combining TOR with SSL is a great idea. The search engine does not know who you are, and anyone running a TOR exit node cannot see what you are searching for.

[Fox McCloud]

FYI, I have a setup at home that gets me free incoming and outgoing calls. Basically I use SipSorcery.com to act as a free switchboard which calls my GoogleVoice # which calls my SipGate.com number. SipGate is one of a few free SIP clients, so several will work. I even connected my analogue phone into my internet connection via a special $50 router so that we can use our regular cordless phone as a VOIP device. It's pretty slick.

I do something somewhat similar with Gizmo5.

if someone calls my GV number, it gets forwarded to my Gizmo5 SIP number (which is housed on a SIP box); when I want to make an outgoing call, I open up a command-line dialer on my PC (right next to the phone), enter the number (with area code), and my phone rings...I pick it up, and it dials the number I want.