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Re:Skype backdoor confirmation by mtgx on Saturday May 18, 2013 @06:42AM (#5728474)
Considering there was an article just a few days ago in NYTimes [1] claiming that "Skype is so secure because of its decentralization" that law enforcement tries to pass laws against it, I'd say a lot of people aren't aware that Microsoft does have access to all the information at this point thanks to their "super-nodes", but even NYTimes writers aren't aware of it (or maybe it was just a cloaked advertorial for Skype).

I'll also continue to say how extremely disappointed I am that none of the major IM players (not Google, not Apple, not Microsoft, not Yahoo, not Facebook) wants to implement OTR encryption in their chat apps. Google even removed their fake "OTR" from the new Hangouts app, which I believe only hid your logs from yourself, not from Google themselves.

[1] - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/business/concerns-arise-on...

Re:Skype backdoor confirmation by Sami_Lehtinen on Saturday May 18, 2013 @07:26AM (#5728555)
There are also truly distributed solutions like Bitmessage. https://bitmessage.org/
Re:Skype backdoor confirmation by johnchristopher on Saturday May 18, 2013 @08:04AM (#5728624)
Thank you!

I was thinking about MTUA, mail, crypto/privacy and bitsync yesterday and was wondering if there could be a new mail system that would be encrypted and decentralized by default (à la bitsync/bittorrent).

Bitmessage seems to closely match what I had in mind.

Re:Skype backdoor confirmation by amboar on Saturday May 18, 2013 @08:23AM (#5728661)
check out syndie : http://syndie.i2p2.de
Re:Skype backdoor confirmation by err_badprocrast on Sunday May 19, 2013 @04:40AM (#5732280)
I believe the differentiation is that Skype routes calls p2p by default, so wiretapping them is hard. It may be possible for Skype to record calls, but only when it's routed through Supernodes - a mode usually reserved for when firewalls prevent a p2p connection.

Call metadata like to/from, time, and call length are stored - as is all text.

Re:Skype backdoor confirmation by film42 on Saturday May 18, 2013 @12:03PM (#5729331)
But the whole purpose of the new handouts app is that all clients are syncd. That's kind of hard if 3rd party apps don't have the same ability. Then all you're left with is useless encrypted messages.