Kim Dotcom launches end-to-end encrypted audio and video chat service | Hacker News Reader

Kim Dotcom launches end-to-end encrypted audio and video chat service

thenextweb.com

69 pointsfmax3026 comments

It's a move that makes sense - his business of allowing you to share and download files puts him at odds with authorities. Given this nature of this business his clients would motivated to use secure communications. He will be able to market to the sort of people who need privacy and have used his services before.

If you should trust him [1], and if you like him are another matter - but clearly there's a business opportunity for someone who can market to the megaupload crowd.

[1] https://anoninsiders.net/mega-960/

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Edit: Changed 'like' to 'motivated' as it describes the situation better (see Zigurd's comment below)

> his clients would like to talk to each other without someone listening in

That also encompasses almost everyone on Earth.

It should. But as many have pointed out here, in reality people need motivation, and most people don't have it. Sex, drugs, copying, political dissidence, etc. You have to start with a market of the motivated, who may already be using less-convenient tools.

I wish he would use his stature to promote existing solutions like Jitsi or Tox. That won't contribute to his bank account though, so it's a non-starter.

I feel like tox is slowly dying, https://github.com/irungentoo/toxcore/issues/1186

If there are multiple dissatisfied devs, why not fork?

This would be a nice feature on an android app. Hangouts is good, but I just don't trust google with my privacy any more.

He was a professional conman (before he made money with mega by actively pushing pirated content) known for making false claims, so be weary about the reliability of his encryption claims.

It seems to me that he's an opportunist. Rather we trust this particular service to each his own. He seems like a smart business person. I think he knows that gaining trust is an important obstacle to this business. So I'll keep my eyes open and see what they do with this to gain our trust.

Also he's admitted to snitching on people to law enforcement for his own benefit. I wouldn't trust the man with anything private. Ever.

Good thing we have the Government to protect us. At least someone we can trust with all we do online.

No, the point is not to trust anybody (more realistically: vigorously evaluate your Web of Trust), but you should especially not trust someone who is known to be untrustworthy.

Don't say that! The Government will protect us from the scum Kim or whatever his name. Be a bit more appreciative!

And in all seriousness I hate this world where the Government can do whatever it wants to you including spying you on all you do online, but you's rather get pissed off because of a guy pirating software. Get some perspective!

Who said that I care about him pirating software? I'm just as mad about government spying but that doesn't mean that I put my privacy in the trust of a known conman.

Just because he is opposed to the US government doesn't make him a hero.

The service he is advertising is valuable, but he's duplicitous. Why should I trust him?

People forget this. I remember in the early 2000s when he was known as Kimble and ran pump and dump scams, and had a website of him on private jets and fancy cars partying with his illicit gains. Now he is known as some anti authority hero to many.

People are really poor judges of character and people are so desperate for a certain kind of hero that anyone who appears to fill those shoes will and you can't persuade them with facts.

If you don't trust Kim Dotcom to deliver, there's always Tox.

https://tox.im/

If you do not trust him, you can compile your own client: https://github.com/meganz

just like ... Skype?

Skype is getting more and more useless with every iteration. Encryption is gone, file transfer first stopped to recognize direct LAN connection between clients and now some of the files get stored "in the cloud", the design is just atrocious, advertisements annoying (thank gods for workarounds). And yesterday my 5.9 installation stopped working, so I have to put up with that.

Encryption is gone

Do you have a link to that? The last time I looked at the news, Skype was using SSL to servers so Microsoft could see the data transferred, and while that's not ideal, it's still very different from your implication that everything in the protocol is now transmitted in the clear.

Sure, first websearch result [1] , although I was talking about EFF's evaluation [2]. Of course there is -some- encryption, not plaintext, but it was better before Microsoft came in, or so I hear. But I worded the original post poorly, sorry about that.

[1] http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/05/think-your-skype-mes...

[2] https://www.eff.org/secure-messaging-scorecard

I think he's talking about government backdoors, whereas a service like MegaChat could potentially offer true end-to-end chat..

However this doesn't seem to be the case as A. you're unable to upload your own public key, and B it's still client-side JS. A subpoena would force them to pass on your session logs, encryption keys, etc.

Hopefully not (although possibly) just like Skype: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype_security#Eavesdropping_b...

Presumably the encryption of open source SIP clients and Firefox hello are more trustworthy(?).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8683593

Skype? Microsoft has systematically ruined skype. It used to be a great service, though.

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