Comments on: The end of privacy protected “secure” Skype http://evan.verstory.com/2009/12/skype-no-longer-secure-private/ my views on life and the world Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:05:40 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.1 hourly 1 By: Evan http://evan.verstory.com/2009/12/skype-no-longer-secure-private/comment-page-1/#comment-3310 Evan Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:05:40 +0000 http://evan.verstory.com/?p=327#comment-3310 They actually did reply, and after a few exchanges in which they essentially didn't want to comment, they finally said something that basically equivocated to Skype "washing its hands" of TOM's shady practices here's what they said: "Thank you for your reply. We understand your concern that you wish to know whether the skype chats of regular skype users are monitored if they contact TOM Skype users. We would kindly ask you to contact TOM Skype regarding this question as we can only state that due to privacy reasons Skype does not monitor any chats or calls made by skype users. You can contact TOM Skype on the following email address: skype@bj.tom.com Please let us know if this has resolved the issue. If you need more assistance, feel free to contact us again; we will be glad to help. Best regards," I suppose I will get to TOM to see what they have to say, but I'm assuming I'll be stonewalled as it's doubtful they care much about English language users. They actually did reply, and after a few exchanges in which they essentially didn’t want to comment, they finally said something that basically equivocated to Skype “washing its hands” of TOM’s shady practices here’s what they said:

“Thank you for your reply.

We understand your concern that you wish to know whether the skype chats
of regular skype users are monitored if they contact TOM Skype users.

We would kindly ask you to contact TOM Skype regarding this question as
we can only state that due to privacy reasons Skype does not monitor any
chats or calls made by skype users.

You can contact TOM Skype on the following email address:
skype@bj.tom.com

Please let us know if this has resolved the issue. If you need more
assistance, feel free to contact us again; we will be glad to help.

Best regards,”

I suppose I will get to TOM to see what they have to say, but I’m assuming I’ll be stonewalled as it’s doubtful they care much about English language users.

]]> By: M http://evan.verstory.com/2009/12/skype-no-longer-secure-private/comment-page-1/#comment-3309 M Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:27:20 +0000 http://evan.verstory.com/?p=327#comment-3309 Out of context that policy snippet on the surface may appear to be quite negative, however if you think about what skype offers this policy is entirely necessary for them to operate. I'm not here to defend skype. I'm a paying skype user and I too have suggested it to people for a variety of reasons. I'm NOT a satisfied user these days. In fact I'm considering canceling my subscription as it is becoming increasingly unusable for calling purposes. As any business that deals with millions of users around the world you have to consider that the people you serve need protection, but the company and it's staff and developers etc. also need some protections. This policy appears to be dealing with your contact and account related information and likely not your transcripts or voice conversations. I can't speak to the issues with TOM skype as I have no experience with that side of things. I do hope you get a response from skype on your information requests. I too doubt you'll get anywhere with it but you may find out some very interesting information along the way. Out of context that policy snippet on the surface may appear to be quite negative, however if you think about what skype offers this policy is entirely necessary for them to operate. I’m not here to defend skype. I’m a paying skype user and I too have suggested it to people for a variety of reasons. I’m NOT a satisfied user these days. In fact I’m considering canceling my subscription as it is becoming increasingly unusable for calling purposes.

As any business that deals with millions of users around the world you have to consider that the people you serve need protection, but the company and it’s staff and developers etc. also need some protections. This policy appears to be dealing with your contact and account related information and likely not your transcripts or voice conversations.

I can’t speak to the issues with TOM skype as I have no experience with that side of things. I do hope you get a response from skype on your information requests. I too doubt you’ll get anywhere with it but you may find out some very interesting information along the way.

]]> By: cal http://evan.verstory.com/2009/12/skype-no-longer-secure-private/comment-page-1/#comment-2722 cal Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:39:39 +0000 http://evan.verstory.com/?p=327#comment-2722 Great discussion! I'll be waiting to hear what happens next. It's disturbing that these legal disclosures say they are committed to our privacy and within a paragraph acknowledge that they will do these actions. I'm sure government regulation requires them to do these disclosure, but it only gives you a sense of what they CAN DO, not what they are IN FACT doing. Google's motto is "do no evil", yet they are engaging in questionable practices in China to gain a foothold in the market. To be fair, other major search engines are doing the same, but still. More to be said later on that if we get a chance to talk. I hope you can find out how this privacy compares to Messenger (is that our only alternative to talk via headset?). Great discussion! I’ll be waiting to hear what happens next. It’s disturbing that these legal disclosures say they are committed to our privacy and within a paragraph acknowledge that they will do these actions. I’m sure government regulation requires them to do these disclosure, but it only gives you a sense of what they CAN DO, not what they are IN FACT doing. Google’s motto is “do no evil”, yet they are engaging in questionable practices in China to gain a foothold in the market. To be fair, other major search engines are doing the same, but still. More to be said later on that if we get a chance to talk. I hope you can find out how this privacy compares to Messenger (is that our only alternative to talk via headset?).

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