Is this for real?

I got this via the ZDnet news letter and quite frankly I am appalled at this being allowed to happen.

I am realistic and frankly I know they gather info about people in general but this id going too far. I was going to hook up to Skype in the near future but this has turned me off completely - unless one can encrypt your machines sensitive personal data.

Microsoft I for one think you have gone too far this time, but I stand to be corrected if I am speaking out of turn.

Big brother Microsoft listens in to your Skype IMs | ZDNet

Hum see what you mean bob he certainly puts himself around a bit - thing is I am getting ever more cynical about anything to do with the net.

It's just that my brother wants to Skype away but seeing that sort of reinforced my skepticism. Great in theory but in reality like everything else someone wants to make that extra dollar out of you eh? (including Microsoft)

Eventually (well...now?) they'll be able to run cyphers through our communications to look for obvious signs of "terrorism" and whatnot. Voice recognition is the future (well maybe now, but it's surely only so efficient) as it will be a part of more complex AI. This voice recognition will surely be used to the advantage of people who are looking out for "our best interests". Well, even visual pattern recognition, perhaps, but away with that for now. (Interesting that it said they'll keep textual communication for 30 days but aural for 60)

Let's say I'm talking with Person A on Skype about making bombs, and then go on my way. A week later I blow up some stuff and maim some passersby, and the police get wind of my having to do with it and have ample evidence to get a warrant or whatever they need to look at my goods. They'll contact Skype or whomever, and ask for all my logged video/audio transmissions. They'll use this as a means of finding out about what they need to find out about and hopefully stop it from happening in the future, which is good.

The important question is are they going to constantly run cyphers through everyone's communications no matter who you are, as to find a string of data that corresponds with some "bad thing" (I don't mean to start an argument about what is right and wrong, just giving examples of what the government will probably look for): smoking weed, doing acid, raping women, teachers masterbating in kindergarden classrooms, clubbing seals and tearing them apart just to throw their body parts from tall buildings to watch them splat. Then one would think one's freedom is severely limited, because what if, as I just did, said these things in jest? Then you'll eavesdrop on me and listen to all my secrets that I only want to tell my special friend about, heh?

I don't know, a debate would kind of be intriguing...

P.S.: I don't know much about Skype, and assume you can video chat as well.

Yeah IIllytch this is what bothers me if I say have a conversation with a friend or my brother and voice my opinions on something that would involve another culture or race and in all innocence to boot - am I going to get the knock on the door or a court summons to front up and face the music.

I used to a very long time ago be on that Facebook rot and found some of the stuff on it was even for a liberal minded person such as myself quite offensive. My own thoughts on that sort of thing goes also for the wretched Twitter that they constantly bombard you with on the broadcast media.

I find it extremely boring to hear TV hosts on whatever program comment that they can be tweeted or emailed and having read some of the write ups regarding the security of those devices one uses for that crap I am simply amazed that supposedly intelligent individuals would use such a media as that rubbish.

I work with mainly women and the are besotted with those iPhones and iPads and as much as I try to ignore it I find it very annoying when they are so wrapped up in those things when there is work to be done.

I don't think I'll ever use Facebook or any of that, mainly because I'm a generally non-social person. I do think, however, that there can be productive use for those platforms of communication, but rarely is it used as such, I'm almost sure.

People don't want to believe that all of this is empty and void of substance. They want to make as much of it as they can, and if filling it up with unnecessary dramatic tweet rubbish makes them feel better, so be it, "opium for the masses"; people do the same with faith in a god(s), but let's not get into that, don't want to offend anyone.

Time to sleep...Amducious loves sleep...

pincushion said:

As various authorities or commercial enterprises attempt to monitor our communications for whatever purposes then so do the means often arise to avoid this (have never used Skype or the below I might add) -

https://jitsi.org/

Have to agree pincushion given the expertise of the black hats I doubt anything will ever be safe. Which prompts me to wonder about the "safe runs" that some security software uses.

I use Kaspersky and it runs online banking (or anything else if so wished) in a safe mode but given the direction of this discussion I now am having doubts.

However I did see Comodo are supposed to have just put out a 100% safe internet suite - I think I saw it in ZDnet news and was ? version 6. But a Google shows me there is trouble with the firewall being disrupted so one would not know.

I suppose it is like the old adage - make something foolproof and some fool will find a way of breaking into or it however crude.

Absolutely imperfect the situation in the UK is one where you cannot walk a hundred metres in London for example without being on a surveillance camera.

That goes for the public transport and so on - not forgetting the eye in the sky eh? Those satellites and drones are truly amazing pieces of engineering but stiil scary!