[liberationtech] Microsoft Accesses Skype Chats

[Pranesh Prakash]

Mark Ballard [2013-05-31 13:40]:
> Google is not transparent about it.
>
> It started doing this with Gmail too. It didn't ask my permission. It
> didn't tell me what it was doing. If you click on a link from within
> one of your own personal emails, it opens via a Google redirect. Yes,
> Google already handles your mail.

Even if all of this is for preventing spread of phishing and malware 
(any list of sites loaded with malware that I use to test this out?), 
there ought to be an option for those who want to opt-out.

In Google Chrome, there is an option to "enable phishing and malware 
protection" which is on by default, but can be disabled.  Gmail and 
Google Hangout don't seem to have any option to disable URL redirection.

Interestingly, URLs sent via Google's XMPP servers doesn't seem to 
trigger the URL substitution, only URLs sent via the Hangouts interface.

-- 
Pranesh Prakash
Policy Director
Centre for Internet and Society
T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org
PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: @pranesh_prakash