Princess of the World

Hey, you know how Walmart sucks and so we don’t shop there? You know how if you buy an apple that was grown more than 13 metres away you half expect a large, hairy, croc clad foot to come down from the top of the screen and squoosh you into a Monty Python-esque carbon footprint shape? Well I have similar feelings about Skype and now I’m going to tell you why.

I live far from many of my best friends and am repeatedly asked if I have Skype. For those of you who live under a rock, Skype is a communication company who offer live chat (like msn and googletalk) and free, or very cheap phone calls from your computer or phone, great for people staying in touch over long distances. I don’t use it, and I want to tell you why, so you can decide if you care or not.

Early last year our favorite nerd discovered that Skype in China was monitoring and archiving people’s chat conversations (for the benefit of the Chinese government). This is despite Skype execs claiming that (in China) ‘full end-to-end security is preserved and there is no compromise of people’s privacy’.

You can read more about this, written by people who know shit about shit on Nart’s blog, the NY Times, Wired Magazine and a billion other smarty pants sites that you can look up yourself (lazy bones).

We all know about the Chinese government right? We got that memo? They do some bad shit to lots of people who don’t deserve to be treated like that. I think it’s really disappointing that Skype have chosen not to follow all of this up with a resounding fuck you to Tom Communications and come up with a method of not enabling this to happen. I guess there is too much money to be made in the Chinese market to simply make the ethical decision not to be involved in this case. Anyway, I just think this shows highly questionable ethics and is a clear warning that Skype isn’t as secure and private as we all thought.

Now, I make hypocritical decisions constantly, I admit that. I have organic foods delivered to my house but I get them to bring me avocados in winter. I find people who eat McDonald’s a total mystery but I love Cheezies (or Twisties in Australia). I despise George W Bush but am totally addicted to opium AND love cheap Afghani rugs. The list is so extensive that I could go on for EVER. I guess I’m trying to say that I understand that other people will be able to look past this – Oprah uses Skype for all out of town interviews for God’s sake. However, if you don’t approve of the Chinese government doing whatever the fuck they want then just have a think about whether you want to support a company that actively chooses to enable this and is most distinctly not honest about it. That’s all.*

*That’s not really all. Skype claimed after this all came out, that they were shocked! and were looking into it immediately! good heavens! exclamation! So I’m going to email them and ask them if they did do anything about it, if they did, that’s definitely a step in the right direction. Graeme is doubtful. I’ll let you know.