Microsoft Inherits Sticky Data Collection Issues From Skype

nytimes.com

3 pointsOGinparadise2 comments

This article makes it sound as if having P2P encrypted communications that Microsoft can't log is an "issue".

But I don't really buy this anyway. Hasn't Microsoft tried to build more "supernodes" to do just that? I don't think Skype calls are as P2P as they were 5 years ago. If it's P2P how do they preserve the offline chats?

I also don't understand what this means:

"According to Microsoft’s published privacy policy, three types of information are generated by Skype: personally identifiable information on users; nonidentifiable information; and the actual contents of Skype-to-Skype audio and video conversations."

Does that mean they log audio and video conversations?!

"including its billions of encrypted, peer-to-peer Internet conversations."

And why on earth would Skype need to keep the conversations on a backup tape long after the conversation is over? Shouldn't they be erased from everywhere (Skype and peer-to-peer hosts) once the call is ended?

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