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Saudia Arabia will lift a 2013 ban on Internet calling services:
Saudi Arabia will lift a ban on internet phone calls, a government spokesman said, part of efforts to attract more business to the country. All online voice and video call services such as Microsoft's Skype and Facebook's WhatsApp that satisfy regulatory requirements will become accessible at midnight (2100 GMT), Adel Abu Hameed, spokesman for the telecoms regulator CITC said on Twitter on Wednesday.
The policy reversal represents part of the Saudi government's broad reforms to diversify the economy partly in response to low oil prices, which have hit the country's finances. "Digital transformation is one of the key kick-starters for the Saudi economy, as it will incentivise the growth of internet-based businesses, especially in the media and entertainment industries," a statement from the information ministry said. "Access to VoIP (voice over internet protocol) will reduce operational costs and spur digital entrepreneurship – that's why it is such an important step in the Kingdom's internet regulation," it said.
Perhaps they found the backdoors.
Also at TechCrunch.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday September 21 2017, @02:33PM (3 children)
They're working with their good friends at the US NSA to monitor all the calls. Or at least, all the calls that could potentially interest the thoroughly repressive government.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday September 21 2017, @03:51PM
That is similar to my first thought about this.
Obviously, they have obtained some way to monitor these calls. With or without the NSA.
Saying it is to help business people is the window dressing to look welcoming.
They may have also realized that there is inherent value in letting people communicate things that the government doesn't like. That allows you to monitor these communications and identify and track the individuals involved for later punishment. Hey, US government! Maybe it is useful to not restrict internet communications if your goal is to become a fascist regime.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday September 21 2017, @04:05PM (1 child)
Well there's the rub right there.
I'm betting any layer of encryption users might want to wrap the voice call in is not going to meed requirements.
I wonder if mankind will ever shake off this idea that government must be a party to every conversation.
I also wonder when or if people will realize that having the Judiciary as part of the Government means there is never going to be any protection of civil liberties.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @12:57PM
Would you rather have judiciary as part of the clergy?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 21 2017, @03:44PM (4 children)
Now people might talk to each other about how the Koran is just the rantings of an insane pedophile.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 21 2017, @03:57PM (3 children)
Or that the Bible is just a set of old wives tales passed down from an unbreakable lineage of grandmas
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday September 21 2017, @04:06PM (2 children)
I'll take Grandmas for 1000 Alex.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 21 2017, @04:22PM (1 child)
The Internet: Proof positive that hateful self-righteous bigotry is not exclusive to the religious nutters.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 21 2017, @05:18PM
since when is merely stating the truth "hateful"? you can try to change the meanings of words all you want and while you may get white yippies to follow along, the rest of us just grow to truly hate you. you will find out what true hate is, when we've heard enough from your kind.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by requerdanos on Thursday September 21 2017, @05:51PM (1 child)
Read for wisdom, ye Saudis, and encrypt:
TFS:
Thexalon:
DannyB:
frojack:
Many of us have personally shaken that notion, but I am saddened to find that it certainly doesn't seem to be most.
For example, I use only jitsi* and utox/qtox** for the voip/video calling discussed in TFA, and my contacts that I usually talk with are the ones who've agreed to use them also. The end-to-end encryption is the killer feature. Those who continue to insist on skype*** (skype! when MSNSA is just as much a thing as MSNBC!) aren't contacts I usually talk with anymore. It's a much smaller circle, but of people who value privacy. Also, we don't start off each conversation anymore with "Hey, good to hear from you. President Allah Bomb Terror Cell, hi to those monitoring this call." or some variation, because that no longer flags our calls for later intensive review, occupying some of the oppressive forces' time in a similar way to how scambaiters occupy the 419-mugus' time. I almost miss that.
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* Jitsi works but sucks. Bad. Because I rent a server and run resiprocate STUN/TURN on it, *every* call attempt doesn't fail now; merely many of them. It's buggy buggy buggy ("yeah, we'll fix that in the rewrite") but the sound and video quality are great and it's quite usable. Migration step one is "Lower your expectations."
** (q|u)tox works but sucks. Bad. Calls complete very reliably into a barely discernable garble of really, really bad audio quality that combines with my mild hearing loss to build a frustrating, almost unusable end result that shows great, great promise. Migration step one is "Lower your expectations."
*** Skype is simply a tool of oppression with which people place their own selves under the thumb of governments. It's like a russian roulette kit, but without the empty chambers. Audio and video quality are very, very good, the platform is very stable, and call completion is near-100%. I do not recommend using this platform for communication, though use to sandbag and waste the time of surveillance operatives is probably okay. Have a nice Bomb Allah President [rogerebert.com] day.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @02:56AM
Have you tried GNU Ring?