when oh when will enough be enough
Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
11–20 of 77 posts
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#12I 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…
Once they ditched p2p the quality derailed. The worst thing was the Skype mobile app trying to sync on my phone. It never seemed to cache convos well enough, it also would not sync properly between devices in regards to notifications. Also Skype would try to pull in my entire history. I feel like some P2P concepts stuck deeply within Skype and thats what left it so awkward.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Once they ditched p2p the quality derailed. The worst thing was the Skype mobile app trying to sync on my phone. It never seemed to cache convos well enough, it also would not sync properly between devices in regards to notifications. Also Skype would try to pull in my entire history. I feel like some P2P concepts stuck deeply within Skype and thats what left it so awkward.
The mobile app is probably why they ditched P2P. As much as I love old Skype, it existed in a pre-mobile world, and never translated well to phones... and in fact, most P2P platforms won't translate well to phones, since you at least need centralization for the push notifications. Such is life.
Though to be clear, yeah, it didn't really fix the mobile app. It felt just as broken up to the moment I uninstalled Skype.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
It's unlikely, while the US government had real leverage via contract negotiations, Anti trust issues, etc.
Skype looked like a solid investment at the time. Microsoft makes a lot of money from corporate clients so it's probably just another strategic acquisition that they did not know what to do with.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#15I do remember how Skype used to be end-to-end encrypted.
Mind that this - as I understand it - about cases where the automatic translation is being used in Skype (while I wonder how "sexy" phone sex via automatic translation might be ... In my imagination (you want to hear about that, right?) these could be people trying "funny" things with the translation ... or I underestimate the quality.
And yes, doesn't mean MSFT doesn't have access to other communication and doesn't mean other cases aren't serious leaks of information to arbitrary contractors.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
Obsolutely! At this point its just a matter of how big is government contract regarding scooping into Skype content. I could bet the billions MS soend have been easily recouped in first 2 years.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#17I hope they hear me complaining about how poorly Skype works.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#18I'm not sure how this is anything new. Phone company employees sometimes listened to phone calls. Unless your communication is encrypted somehow you have to assume that at least some employees of the service may have access (which is probably detailed somewhere in a user agreement).
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#19>Although Skype's website says that the company may analyze audio of phone calls that a user wants to translate in order to improve the chat platform's services, it does not say some of this analysis will be done by humans.
I'm sorry, but isn't this just nitpicking? Just because they don't say how it's analyzed doesn't make this a scandal.
Re: Microsoft Contractors Are Listening to Some Skype Calls
#20I 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.
Of course they did! NSA issued an RFP for Skype intercept in 2009 [1] and everyone assumed that MS took them up on it:
>An industry source disclosed that America's supersecret National Security Agency (NSA) is offering "billions" to any firm which can offer reliable eavesdropping on Skype IM and voice traffic.
And then Snowden revelations confirmed that MS was intercepting Skype [2]:
>Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian.
>In July last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSA boasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism;
[1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions...
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-...