Big brother Microsoft listens in to your Skype IMs

[joiwind]

As said in the article maybe this will finally incite someone to build a really good open source alternative to Skype : Big brother Microsoft listens in to your Skype IMs.

I have played with ooVoo which I like a lot but the difficult bit is convincing all your contacts to switch over from Skype ...

[40hz]

Good luck with that. "It's only as good as the network it's on - and who's on the network," as the saying goes.
Consider Facebook. Despite the large number of people who hate it, look how many are still forced to use it for no reason other than the fact that their friends/family/fans/clients are all on it - and won't switch to G+ or something similar.

I've been trying to get my friends to switch over to a Farnsworth:

[attach]

[joiwind]

Good luck with that. "It's only as good as the network it's on - and who's on the network," as the saying goes.
Consider Facebook. Despite the large number of people who hate it, look how many are still forced to use it for no reason other than the fact that their friends/family/fans/clients are all on it - and won't switch to G+ or something similar.

Never underestimate the power of inertia.

Inertia makes the world go round 

[40hz]

^

[mahesh2k]

Same can be said for Google Voice or any google service. Almost every such service is monitored by Big B here in my country.

[Renegade]

I have played with ooVoo which I like a lot but the difficult bit is convincing all your contacts to switch over from Skype ...

Why ooVoo? Or, what makes you think that they don't spy on you as well? (I'm curious - I've not really looked into ooVoo much.)

[joiwind]

I have played with ooVoo which I like a lot but the difficult bit is convincing all your contacts to switch over from Skype ...

Why ooVoo? Or, what makes you think that they don't spy on you as well? (I'm curious - I've not really looked into ooVoo much.)

In fact I don't think they (ooVoo) don't spy on me too - it comes down the old question :

either
1) they spy on everyone (possible)
2) or they spy on most-popular media (probable)
3) if not 1) then 2) in which case use a less-popular media like ooVoo

Will we ever know ?

(I'm rambling .... )

[jgpaiva]

Now that I think of this, would it be that hard (from a technical point of view) to encrypt voip calls in a similar way to how gtalk can be encrypted?
Also, can other clients access skype's network or does it only work with skype's client (and facebook's?) ?

[daddydave]

Same can be said for Google Voice or any google service. Almost every such service is monitored by Big B here in my country.

This made me imagine conversations are being monitored by Amitabh Bachchan (also known as Big B) for movie ideas.

[Carol Haynes]

When will overdubbed ads start appearing on Skype based on your conversations content?

Oh I forgot it is MS - they would probably advertise something completely irrelevant - but they know you should want!

[mahesh2k]

Same can be said for Google Voice or any google service. Almost every such service is monitored by Big B here in my country.

This made me imagine conversations are being monitored by Amitabh Bachchan (also known as Big B) for movie ideas.

[Edvard]

... and Skype for Linux hit ver. 4.0 only just last month.  I'll give it a shot, I suppose.  Couldn't hurt after waiting MORE THAN 3 FECKING YEARS to get out of 2.2 Beta.

Google's Talk plugin doesn't work for me at all; first I log into gmail and hit the "Call Phone" link which brings up a dial pad, which has a link that says "Please download the voice plugin to make a call." (I have already downloaded and installed the plugin). I hit the link and it brings up a new tab with Gmail and a dial pad that says "Please download the voice plugin to make a call.".
Deja Vu, man...
The terminal output is just as puzzling:

boring terminal output

[000:002] Starting client channel.
[000:002] Warning(clientchannel.cc:435): Unreadable or no port file.  Could not initiate GoogleTalkPlugin connection
[000:002] Warning(clientchannel.cc:410): Could not initiate GoogleTalkPlugin connection
[000:002] GoogleTalkPlugin not running. Starting new process...
[000:002] Warning(optionsfile.cc:47): Load: Could not open file, err=2
[000:002] Warning(pluginutils.cc:260): Failed to get GoogleTalkPlugin path. Trying default.
[000:003] Started GoogleTalkPlugin, path=/opt/google/talkplugin/GoogleTalkPlugin
[000:004] Waiting for GoogleTalkPlugin to start...
[001:102] Attempting to connect to GoogleTalkPlugin...
[001:102] Warning(clientchannel.cc:435): Unreadable or no port file.  Could not initiate GoogleTalkPlugin connection
[001:103] Warning(clientchannel.cc:410): Could not initiate GoogleTalkPlugin connection
(repeat last 3 lines ad nauseum)

Oovoo, huh?  I'll take a look...

Whole lotta NOPE right there...

Trouble is, there really is no real alternative right now.  Sure, there's a few hopefuls, but for most of the world Skype IS video chat, just like Google IS the internet, Facebook IS social networking, Microsoft IS computers, etc, etc...  To get folks to give up on Skype and get on Oovoo or SIP or whatever will take a very large crowbar, which no other VOIP/Video Chat service/app has at the moment.
The only way I see it happening is if Microsoft royally screws it up and makes folks drop it en masse at around the same a viable competitor appears, much like when Firefox started getting popular around the same time that IE was really getting on people's nerves.
Right now, I don't see that happening.  

[joiwind]

Skype's "Right of reply" : Skype wiretap analysis and Skype blog