Live data from Hacker News

Open Letter to Skype from Internet Activists, Journalists and Academics

skypeopenletter.com

1–10 of 70 posts

Re: Open Letter to Skype from Internet Activists, Journalists and Academics

#3
post #2

there alternatives to skype that are open sourced and you can look up what security features they got. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_VoIP_software

Skype is popular because it just worked, even through funky firewalls. The replacement would need to be better than Skype to gain traction with non-technical users.

Re: Open Letter to Skype from Internet Activists, Journalists and Academics

#5
post #3
post #2

there alternatives to skype that are open sourced and you can look up what security features they got. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_VoIP_software

Skype is popular because it just worked, even through funky firewalls. The replacement would need to be better than Skype to gain traction with non-technical users.

skype just uses an http tunnel cause mostly the 80 port is open so no magic here(it does some more tricks but this is on).

I dont think skype is easy just look at the UI... i dont like skype for linux it never works on my laptop...

Re: Open Letter to Skype from Internet Activists, Journalists and Academics

#6
Has there been any confirmation of the very juicy rumor about Skype and the NSA? Brieftly it is this:

The NSA put out a $1 billion RFP to crack the encryption of skype - their inability to listen in on this huge communication channel was really a bummer for the NSA. Microsoft says "Hmm" and buys Skype for $8 billion, re-engineers the archtecture of Skype so that it is centralized rather than P2P and easily decrypted by Law Enforcement.

Or is this only another juicy rumor? Is there any citation for this RFP from the NSA, for example?

Re: Open Letter to Skype from Internet Activists, Journalists and Academics

#7
Open comment to Internet Activists, Journalists and Academics: You're not going to get what you want by piggy-backing on Microsoft's proprietary platform. Specifically if you're an Internet Activists you shouldn't be relying on some company's proprietary tool for disguising your communications.

There's plenty of open and secure VoIP clients which coupled with open encryption standards, VPN's etc. will suit your purposes. Use those things, not Skype.

Re: Open Letter to Skype from Internet Activists, Journalists and Academics

#10
post #3
post #2

there alternatives to skype that are open sourced and you can look up what security features they got. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_VoIP_software

Skype is popular because it just worked, even through funky firewalls. The replacement would need to be better than Skype to gain traction with non-technical users.

Skype's overall quality has been on a very steady decline recently. From call quality, to call drops, to offline contacts showing as online and vice versa, to privacy concerns - Skype's position has never been weaker. It still got an obvious momentum, but it is actively pissing of a lot of its users.
Post reply on HN