Skype Makes Chats and User Data More Available to Police
July 26th, 2012Via: Washington Post:
Skype, the online phone service long favored by political dissidents, criminals and others eager to communicate beyond the reach of governments, has expanded its cooperation with law enforcement authorities to make online chats and other user information available to police, said industry and government officials familiar with the changes.
Surveillance of the audio and video feeds remains impractical — even when courts issue warrants, say industry officials with direct knowledge of the matter. But that barrier could eventually vanish as Skype becomes one of the world’s most popular forms of telecommunication.
When Skype was bought by Microsoft I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. This just reinforces it.
By the way did you catch the story about Google, Facebook, eBay and Amazon forming a new lobby group? http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18996319
I’m sure they only have our best interests at heart right?
There goes that sinking feeling again…
@BrowsingMonkey – I only logged on because the reference to ‘Skype’ as if it’s an independent organization caught my eye. Don’t ever ignore that sinking feeling – it actually means something.
Replace the word Skype with Microsoft in the article and no one would be surprised. With all of this branding people are losing sight of ownership. Maybe use the brand name with the owner in parentheses if necessary? Skype(Microsoft)