[LINK] Skype: We can't comply with police wiretap requests

[Kim Holburn]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9963028-38.html

> Skype: We can't comply with police wiretap requests
> Posted by Declan McCullagh
>
> One of the more interesting tidbits from News.com's survey published  
> this morning on instant messaging privacy came from Skype.
>
> The eBay-owned company says it is unable to comply with court- 
> authorized wiretap requests.
>
> We asked Skype: "Have you ever received a subpoena, court order or  
> other law enforcement request asking you to perform a live  
> interception or wiretap, meaning the contents of your users'  
> communications would be instantly forwarded to law enforcement?"
>
> Jennifer Caukin, Skype's director of corporate communications  
> replied to us: "We have not received any subpoenas or court orders  
> asking us to perform a live interception or wiretap of Skype-to- 
> Skype communications. In any event, because of Skype's peer-to-peer  
> architecture and encryption techniques, Skype would not be able to  
> comply with such a request."

> This isn't entirely a surprise. Skype, which claims something like  
> 300 million user accounts, has said in the past that it "cooperates  
> fully with all lawful requests from relevant authorities" but that  
> it is not subject to the U.S. must-provide-a-wiretapping-backdoor  
> law called the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.  
> Police in Germany, for instance, already have complained of Skype's  
> lack of ready wiretappability.

"must provide a wiretapping backdoor"?

> The upshot is that if Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, or so on received a  
> wiretap order for text or voice flowing through their IM networks,  
> they could (and would) be able to comply because the services are  
> centralized.


Or so on == google?

Kim
--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph: +39 06 855 4294  M: +39 3494957443
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request

Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961