Open Letter to Skype from Internet Activists, Journalists and Academics

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.<p>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.

Has there been any confirmation of the very juicy rumor about Skype and the NSA? Brieftly it is this:<p>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.<p>Or is this only another juicy rumor? Is there any citation for this RFP from the NSA, for example?

I have searched and searched for an alternative to Skype, but so far have mostly failed.<p>My situation:<p>- I use Linux on all my desktops/laptops.<p>- I have an Android phone.<p>- My mobile phone bill is usually in excess of £100 per month.<p>- I am usually located in the UK, sometimes elsewhere but almost never in the US.<p>My use cases:<p>- I want to make cheap calls to mobile phone numbers in Ireland, Austria and Australia<p>- I want to make landline calls to the same countries.<p>- I want to send SMS messages to the same countries.<p>- I want to make free person to person VOIP calls.<p>- I want to make video calls.<p>- Security and privacy is a factor.<p>Currently, I have Skype working reasonably well on my 64-bit Debian based Linux machines. However, call quality can be very patchy when calling mobile phone numbers. Video quality is often poor and the call drops out when communicating with others in Australia.<p>I have tried Ekiga, Jitsi, SflPhone and a few others. I have a Diamondcard.us account for making chargeable calls. Almost always the call-out quality of these services is poor. I've been told it sounds like "I'm talking through a pillow."<p>I have been using Google Voice recently. It does work from my UK registered Google Account for making calls to mobile phones and landlines. The call quality is very good. The mobile phone pricing is generally a little more expensive than Skype. Unfortunately, landline calls are significantly more expensive that Skype and the full Google Voice experience (SMS messages, registering a number and thus using on my Android device) isn't available outside the US.<p>Is there any other single unified service worth considering, which does meet at least the majority of my use cases?

What is the best linux-compatibile open source with encryption alternative at the moment? The wiki page shows that many haven't been updated in quite some time (Twinkle). Does anybody have experience with Blink?

The governments in many countries are monitoring everything that you are doing. It is no longer a fictitious idea about what could be done. They collect and correlate sets of data and they use it for monitoring for abnormal behaviour and find potential threats.<p>There is nothing that you can do about it. Your only safety is that you are completely irrelevant for them and they keep their mouth shut unless they have a very good reason not to do so.

Folks please try Discretio for Android (<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.discretio.android" rel="nofollow">https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.discretio....</a>) Open source (GPLv3) secure VOIP solution. For the moment only Android version is available but iOS and desktop vresions are in the queue...

The problem with complain to microsoft about this is they are locked into some of these things with deal skype setup before they were bought out. Microsoft is contractually obligated to only supply skype TOM in china, this is the reason why they wont shutdown MSN in china because they are unable to control the skype network within china. You cant expect microsoft to reveal all these things while they are trying to clean house and get skype in order. Dont hold your breath on microsoft revealing anything

Whats the deal with Google voice and Google talk on this issue?

there alternatives to skype that are open sourced and you can look up what security features they got. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_VoIP_software" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_VoIP_software</a>

Apparently they weren't briefed on the business model: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8c_m6U1f9o" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8c_m6U1f9o</a>

You just need to assume that everything you do on skype can be intercepted. If you want secure communications, choose something else.

Would love to see something similar as what google does for transparency. Even better an common standard for transparency

Open reply from Ballmer to *ists: "My way or highway"

Human creativity sees no walls. Tor this, tor that, onions on the rise!<p>For small chat yes, Skype works, but when selling weapons and weed, no no.

Recurring transparency report? Have you ever asked Google for such things when it reads your emails to sell you ads? Have you ever asked Target or Walmart for this when they track your credit card purchases and sell the ACTUAL data to other parties?<p>Stories like this are driven mostly by unverified rumors and sensationalist journalism that is JUST as rampant in the tech industry as it is in politics, economics, or any other topic covered in mass media today.