Microsoft Buys Skype, Makes Changes to Allow Police Surveillance

[presence]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busine...W_story_1.html

Skype’s resistance to government monitoring, part of the company ethos when European engineers founded it in 2003, resulted from both uncommonly strong encryption and a key technical feature: Skype calls connected computers directly rather than routing data through central servers, as many other Internet-based communication systems do. That makes it more difficult for law enforcement to intercept the call.

[]

Industry officials said the resulting push for the creation of so-called “supernodes,” which routed some data through centralized servers, made greater cooperation with law enforcement authorities possible.

[roxic27]

I'm honestly more shocked this wasn't happening sooner.

[bxm042]

If you want to know where some of the money in the classified "Intelligence" budget goes, some of it just went into Microsoft's pocket

[tod evans]

Kinect.......Skype......A camera in every home..

[bxm042]

You know shit is fucked up when Microsoft patents the technology that makes it easier for the government to spy on us.

Corporations profiting off government spying = What the fuck do you even call that? Fascism?

Microsoft won a patent in June 2011 for “legal intercept”

Though the patent was filed well before Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype, it mentions Skype explicitly as an example application for this technology. Microsoft defends itself by claiming that such technology has existed since a long time for traditional calls, but it does not work with VoIP. The patent describes recording agents that can be placed in several hardware devices as well as software modules that logically and/or physically sits between the call server and the network. The patent was granted last week.

Clearly, the implications of the technology would be severe, especially in the enterprise world. So far, Skype has resisted CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) compliance which would make it suitable to be used for surveillance purposes by federal law enforcement agencies. The ‘protocol’ has been Skype’s best kept secret till date and I personally believe it’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ of the modern web. Given a choice, I believe the Skype management would oppose the idea of eavesdropping on calls. However, now that the Redmond-giant is calling the shots, expect the unexpected.

Microsoft says that ‘Legal Intercept’ can be used by the US government or “one of its agencies”. If further mentions that this technology would require obtaining “appropriate legal permission”, which might not be that difficult for a government to acquire. The technology can record any kind of voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) communications. “VoIP may include audio messages transmitted via gaming systems, instant messaging protocols that transmit audio, Skype and Skype-like applications, meeting software, video conferencing software, and the like,” Microsoft said in the filing.

http://www.thetelecomblog.com/2011/0...ve-a-backdoor/

[GuerrillaXXI]

This is yet another reason I don't intend to ever buy another Microsoft product ever again. Okay, I'm currently using Windows, but this is on a computer I bought years ago, before I was aware of Microsoft's cooperation with law enforcement. I plan on migrating everything over to Linux and never looking back. I encourage others who care about freedom to do the same.

As a bonus, you'll save a lot of money by sticking to open source software. Who needs the planned obsolescence of one MS Office version after another? Open Office is just as good, and it's free.

Incidentally, it goes without saying that anything one REALLY needs to keep private should never be communicated electronically. I wouldn't even do it with encryption. Say it face-to-face, by snail mail, carrier pigeon, or whatever.

[opal]

<--- hasn't updated skype since MS bought it .. doesn't have webcam or mic.. only uses it in a beta testing group for a 3D VW as an intstant messenger

[presence]

This is yet another reason I don't intend to ever buy another Microsoft product ever again. Okay, I'm currently using Windows, but this is on a computer I bought years ago, before I was aware of Microsoft's cooperation with law enforcement. I plan on migrating everything over to Linux and never looking back. I encourage others who care about freedom to do the same.

Download Ubuntu TODAY; do not look back.

Its so easy.

[Matt Collins]

If the government can't decrypt your conversations that it intercepts, then it will store it in their Utah Data Center until such time that their computing power will be able to do so.

[youngbuck]

Whelp, you sure won't find me using Skype!