Skype: "free" software for a bit of your privacy

[zAchAry]

Hi, I had a very interesting chatting with some very interesting Salix OS user, at the #salix irc chat room. here's an edited part of it:

anon: especially younger generation
zachary: vice versa, no?
anon: therefor you will have to give your prints to, and you will be in that database
zachary: well, I think there are, relatively, more adults than youngsters who don't give a damn about their privacy
anon: no.. younger generation doesn't care about privacy
anon: they dwell with facebook , twitter and other crap
anon: "free" software for a bit of your privacy
anon: like skype
anon: the skype program checks your browser history, your my documents, your computer history, i checked that with strace
zachary: strace?
anon: yes, stracte, to view a programs behavior
anon: type "strace" before your program-name shell
anon: it's a standard linux tool, it will be on your salix installation
anon: for example "strace pidgin"
anon: but you can also pipe the output to a file, to analyse it later
anon: because it is a lot of data

The user who I chatted with (anon, above) and everyone else are welcome to post tips about how to track strange and foreign activity in your machine


Keywords: big-brother, big brother, facebook, face book, freeware, myspace, my space, privacy, privacy invasion, proprietary software, secret, security, skype, spy, spyware, twitter.

[thenktor]

anon: they dwell with facebook , twitter and other crap

I can use all of these without revealing any private information.

[Shador]

anon: they dwell with facebook , twitter and other crap

I can use all of these without revealing any private information.

I'd say by using it alone, you're already revealing a whole lot of information. Maybe they can't link it to you as a real person or similar, but they get information.

[damNageHack]

What is privacy? Definition depends on the culture.

You can NOT not communicate.
This means: You are communicating always in all ways of being able to do so.
Even if you are not saying or doing anything, you are communicating that you do nothing.
If you are dead, you are communicating "I am dead".

[Shador]

I just don't want to reveal any information to a company that tests your user password on the email address you provided to obtain data stored with that account. A friend of mine made that experience with facebook.

[damNageHack]

I just don't want to reveal any information to a company that tests your user password on the email address you provided to obtain data stored with that account. A friend of mine made that experience with facebook.

Trust them or not.

[thenktor]

Hmm, and why would I trust my email provider?

[damNageHack]

Hmm, and why would I trust my email provider?

Can you trust yourself?

[salixosuser]

anon: the skype program checks your browser history, your my documents, your computer history, i checked that with strace

Nowadays not only free apps but also many paid apps do collect user data. What they are doing with this depends, but must be additional source of revenue for them if sold to advertising.
Preserving privacy becomes very difficult nowadays and can be done only to some extent as not only there are plenty who want to make profit of this but also the Big Brother wants to know everything about you. And with skillful legalese anything you do or say can be turned against you when such need arises.
Restoring Republic is not feasible as the Big Brother would never allow this to happen.

[zAchAry]

@salixosuser
First of all, thank you for actually replying to my post
Second: I should have fixed that:

browser history, your 'my documents', your computer history

To fight this particular issue: we need to take care that the public will be well aware to these dangers, the biggest danger is you (you=the reader) who's trying to change things for the better but some very big company is not interested in that change (profit issue) and this company may hurt you, for example, think of:

"The more GNU/Linux users and aware people around our globe,
The more computer freedoms we may have"

The less GNU/Linux there's the easy it is for big computer companies to shut it up and to convince legislators, by lies and even bribes, to make laws that will declare Linux as an illegal Operating System etc., etc., etc.

so I believe.

Restoring Republic is not feasible as the Big Brother would never allow this to happen.

I'm fighting Big Brother back in many ways, but it may be hopeless when everything will work with machines (physics forces) and it is largely depends on an Educated Form of Public, not the common retarded public and slobs that is listening to the same meaningless stuff over and over again in the same TV Channels like MTV, MCM, VH1, Dancing with Start (has a lot of various names worldwide) in a global scale - I can't believe that these contents/shows are there merely for profit or by coincidence or because of a lake of creativity of most of the MSM (Main Stream Media) of almost every nation on earth when, at the same time, people are getting less smart, to say the least.

What we have now, IMHO, is a common* retarded and frivolous culture via TV (almost the exact same lazy culture, TV, in a way, is a global corrupted "educator") and most of these people will laugh at you when you (you=the reader) will mention, so called, theories about the dangers concerning one's privacy in the, what is called, 'digital "world"'.

Fight against Big Brother = Educate as much as people as you can.
Care, Cooperation, Education, Education, Education, Education, Family, Love, & Peace


Now, may anyone post some confirmations, solutions, and research about the behavior of the software Skype?