Conversations recorded by those in power

Summary: Another timely reminder of the ‘aggressive’ nature of Microsoft’s Skype

IT is a little frustrating to see how various GNU/Linux bloggers are helping Skype, despite the newly-acquired NSA access to it, as we explained last year and this year. Microsoft is pushing automatic updates with a new EULA (waiver). In fact, there is malicious staff associated with this action:

Apparently by mistake, Microsoft’s Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) last night deployed a Skype update to Windows clients that had never had the telephony and messaging software installed. This resulted in Skype being installed on these computers.

Pushing binary blobs into people’s machines is not a service. It is actually a potential hazard, even if it comes from Google. When proprietary software gets proprietary modification it is impossible to know just what is happening underneath. A lot of time it is code which harms the user. A lot of the time software stays proprietary precisely because it harms the user; if made free, the malicious features would be stripped by users and their development-savvy peers. █

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