Skype finally getting end-to-end encryption
Since its inception, Skype has been notable for its secretive, proprietary algorithm. It's also long had a complicated relationship with encryption: encryption is used by the Skype protocol, but the service has never been clear exactly how that encryption was implemented or exactly which privacy and security features it offers.
That changes today in a big way. The newest Skype preview now supports the Signal protocol: the end-to-end encrypted protocol already used by WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Google Allo, and, of course, Signal. Skype Private Conversations will support text, audio calls, and file transfers, with end-to-end encryption that Microsoft, Signal, and, it's believed, law enforcement agencies cannot eavesdrop on.
Presently, Private Conversations are only available in the Insider builds of Skype.
Also at The Register, The Verge, and Wired.
(Score: 1) by bobthecimmerian on Saturday January 13 2018, @01:35AM
I had the same problem. But I hit on a partial solution. http://www.tristanharris.com/2016/05/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds%e2%80%8a-%e2%80%8afrom-a-magician-and-googles-design-ethicist/ [tristanharris.com] -- instead of convincing other people or even myself to get off hosted networks because of valid but nebulous and difficult to quantify and value concerns around privacy, consider the very real and blatantly obvious addictive designs of these tools. I got hooked on Facebook despite my ethical objections, and spent more and more time there even as I grew more lonely and miserable. I deleted all my content and left a link to that article as my only activity on the site.