Re: Skype access cancelled for Debian versions before 7
On Sun, Aug 3, 2014 at 8:40 AM, Andrew McGlashan
<andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> wrote:
> Microsoft and Google are great big US companies ... that's a problem
> just to start with; the US Government or any of their agents can easily
> destroy all your privacy any time they like.
Are you assuming US companies only gangrape your right to privacy
because the US government tells them to?
> If you have a smart phone, chances are it is Android (Google owned IP
> and control) or iOS (Apple owned IP and control). Even if you have a
> Linux based phone (other than Android), then you still have the issues
> of components above the OS to consider. Sure you could use Cyanogen
> Mod, but that is still based on Android ... just less Google.
>
> Further on trust, given what we know now about BadUSB and all the stuff
> in the NSA /store/ ... you can't even trust any hardware!
...
> Anything with Intel inside is also suspect for similar reasons
True. For android you have replicant, for hardware you have OpenMoko
(which can run Debian, of course).
Why would AMD be off the hook?
> As an Australian, in Australia (all my life), I am supposed to be /free/
> from NSA spying, but that doesn't rule out our own security agencies.
No one's free from the NSA spying on them, especially online. Every
now and then word comes out that the <insert one of the many US gov
spy agencies here> has been spying worldwide. US gov says "Oops,
sorry, plausible deniability,won't happen again." and it's businesss
as usual. Or do you think they won't because you're not american? What
was the first big one to be known, Echelon?
> Nor does it help if I wish to use Tor and/or other encrypting / privacy
> related technology.
What do you mean? Encrypting your own data before it hits the wire
seems to be the most plausible means at the moment.
Of course... who knows what my laptop's hardware secretly does :)
As for Skype: it's a proprietary product based on a proprietary
protocol and now recently bought by your friendly neighborhood folks
at Redmond. No news there, the change isn't that significant.
Yes, there are a bunch of VoIP alternatives but, as someone already
stated on this thread, it's great if you wanna talk to yourself (or
other like-minded folk). On that note, no one mentioned XMPP with
Jingle (used by Google and Facebook, actually).
I use skype because i must and it's off when not it use. I use pidgin
for everything else (msn, yahoo, aol and a whole bunch of other
accounts i've accumulated over the years, like ICQ! :)), because i
won't force my friends to move to jabber just because it's The Right
Thing to do. Otherwise i'd shove Debian down their throats first.
Realistic alternatives to Skype? None. Keep your system pinned, use a
VM or chroot or something.
Cheers,
Nuno
--
"On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog."
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