Realities of Skype and eBay

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: September 12, 2005 7:09:45 PM EDT
To: marcaniballi () hotmail com, richard () shockey us
Cc: dave () farber net, lauren () vortex com
Subject: Realities of Skype and eBay


I am on record as stating -- most recently right here in IP -- that
I consider proprietary VoIP systems to be unacceptable on security
and privacy grounds.  However, given that many people *are* going to
keep using Skype, particularly after it becomes intertwined with
eBay, I feel that it is incumbent on us to take whatever steps are
possible to try encourage reasonable disclosure regarding these
commercial systems -- that *will* be widely used.

The reality is that government-mandated backdoors will likely be
implemented in all commercial VoIP systems, period.  However, at
this stage, there are millions of people using Skype based merely on
the "faith" that it is reasonably secure.  That's bad science across
the board.

In the real world, those of us "in the know" are not the people I'm
most concerned about.  It's the folks who do not have technical
backgrounds who are most dependent on us to try keep the commercial
operations as honest as possible in a very difficult political
environment.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () eepi org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, EEPI
  - Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com



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