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Comment by gary_0 | Hacker News Reader

> Essentially the government has built a surveillance state by outsourcing it to private enterprise.

This has been going on for a long time. A decade ago, Microsoft purchased Skype and converted it from secure peer-to-peer[0][1] to sending all user data unencrypted through their servers while giving the government access to everything. "The 2013 mass surveillance disclosures revealed that Microsoft had granted intelligence agencies unfettered access to supernodes and Skype communication content."[2]

[0] https://arxiv.org/abs/cs/0412017 (2004)

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-security-internet-germany... (2007)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Skype&oldid=10314... (2021)

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Also skype harvested users computers. I noticed that when skype was running the harddrive will be constantly accessed, on an otherwise idle computer. Checking with process explorer showed that skype has a lot of disk reads (hundreds of MB). This was the reason why it got uninstalled. But people are happy with microsoft products. - "They need telemetry to improve the product". - "But there is no improvement. The product is even worse". - "Maybe it's your experience, i already feel better using the new product". or - "I have nothing to hide. They are my friends". What happens when the regime is changed ? ( see Afganistan).

I believe Skype is dead by now for average users. Some still use it in business environments, but they sure did a good job in getting rid of it. Without much success though, since people just use other products.

I'm not so sure about that. I've been seeing it around more than I'd like recently. I even had to use it to talk to my thesis' supervisors.

But have they stopped terror and corruption? Does the benefit outweigh the costs?

There are so few actual terror attacks that the FBI has resorted to goading innocent buffoons into making incriminating statements so they can claim to have foiled something.

There was never a real problem for law enforcement to solve. All we ever needed were reinforced cockpit doors.

but the rest of the cost has created jobs! it's the great jobs program of our lifetimes.

I think it made some people incredibly rich, jobs are an unplanned side effect.

This, but without the /s.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

The scope of surveillace is not to stop terror or, god forbids, corruption. The scope is the suppresion of opposition.

That seems to be something literally all governments, from Belarus over Turkey to China, the US and Europe can agree upon. Surveillance of ones citizens is good, consequences of this surveillance vary by country so.

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