Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
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Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#2I do remember how Skype used to be end-to-end encrypted.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#3I do remember how Skype used to be end-to-end encrypted.
I don’t know much about how it worked but I’ve heard it described more like obfuscation than encryption. It also used to be P2P but that ended under Microsoft’s ownership.
Funny enough, at one point Microsoft basically merged Skype and MSN, and the text chat parts of Skype started using “MSNP24”, a couple version numbers up from the latest MSN protocol, MSNP22. I never dug in to see how much it was really like MSNP from MSN because I lost interest in Skype not long after.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#4I think we have to assume at this point that all online communication tools owned by for-profit mega-corps are compromised and that they can and do listen/analyse everything.
I have long assumed that with Whatsapp... I honestly don't believe that it's as secure as it used to be: Facebook'a raison d'etre is all about data gathering.
Also, when I read a WhatsApp message on my phone, it's unencrypted as I see it on the screen, it kind of has to be... what stops FB (or anyone for that matter) from reading it too at that point.
Sorry, I went on a tangent a bit there but I feel it was relevant.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#5I think we have to assume at this point that all online communication tools owned by for-profit mega-corps are compromised and that they can and do listen/analyse everything. I have long assumed that with Whatsapp... I honestly don't believe that it's as secure as it used to be: Facebook'a raison d'etre is all about data gathering. Also, when I read a WhatsApp message on my phone, it's unencrypted as I see it on the…
Specifically, you should realize anything that companies say is done with "AI" is probably in some part done by poorly paid contractors. And not always on the analysis end, for example: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johanmoreno/2019/05/28/25-of-go...
There's something incredibly dystopian by using humans as part of a process you literally tell people is entirely machines.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#6I do remember how Skype used to be end-to-end encrypted.
I always thought some three lettered agency must have encouraged MS to buy Skype from its foreign owners for precisely that reason. The first 10 years at least MS did absolutely nothing with the company, as if it never really wanted to buy it.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#7I do remember how Skype used to be end-to-end encrypted.
I don’t know much about how it worked but I’ve heard it described more like obfuscation than encryption. It also used to be P2P but that ended under Microsoft’s ownership. Funny enough, at one point Microsoft basically merged Skype and MSN, and the text chat parts of Skype started using “MSNP24”, a couple version numbers up from the latest MSN protocol, MSNP22. I never dug in to see how much it was really like MSNP f…
P2P was really the key to Skype's privacy protections, AFAIK. I remember a lot of insanity in the P2P days, even when they had a bunch of their own supernodes holding everything together. Like photo shares and file sends not working if the person who posted them was offline when you finally saw them, which was especially annoying in group chat contexts. Skype's model was built really well for the world where everyone had a persistently-internet-connected desktop. But it's P2P nature was incredibly terrible once mobile became the norm.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#8Slate and Forbes wrote an article about this in 2012 when it was noticed Microsoft had filed a patent for this.. although nobody from Microsoft would publicly comment on the issue.
This has likely been going on for some time.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/07/22/its-terr...
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#9I do remember how Skype used to be end-to-end encrypted.
I always thought some three lettered agency must have encouraged MS to buy Skype from its foreign owners for precisely that reason. The first 10 years at least MS did absolutely nothing with the company, as if it never really wanted to buy it.
That’s pretty silly. For one thing, it was already owned domestically before MS bought it. Second, you think MS spends 8.5 billion plus untild engineering resources and overhead as a favor to the US government?
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#10“"Some stuff I've heard could clearly be described as phone sex. I've heard people entering full addresses in Cortana commands, or asking Cortana to provide search returns on pornography queries. While I don't know exactly what one could do with this information, it seems odd to me that it isn't being handled in a more controlled environment," the contractor said.