[liberationtech] Microsoft Accesses Skype Chats

[Kyle Maxwell]

Skype isn't transparent about it - you include a link in a chat and it
looks normal and the people who click on it go directly to the URL
provided. But Microsoft later visits it surreptitiously, despite the
claims that nobody can read your content.

Google is transparent about it - you include a link and you get
something that will redirect you to it. (I imagine this is to prevent
the spreading of all sorts of phishing and malware as commonly happens
in, say, Facebook chats). Google doesn't claim that nobody can read
your content, and it's fairly obvious even to casual users that Google
can see what you're discussing.

On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 1:35 PM, Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org> wrote:
> I noticed recently that (all?) URLs sent via Google Hangouts automatically
> get replaced by a Google URL redirection (the way their search results do if
> you're logged in).
>
> I've not seen any documentation of this on Google's help pages, though.
>
> Sure, Google Hangouts doesn't sell itself on its security, and a redirect is
> more transparent than secret visits from a Microsoft server.  That said, how
> exactly is this different from what Skype is doing?
>
>
> ~ Pranesh
>
> --
> Pranesh Prakash
> Policy Director
> Centre for Internet and Society
> T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
> PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: @pranesh_prakash
>
>
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