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The New York Times reports that a Canadian human-rights activist cum researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto has discovered that instant messaging (IM) conversations over the Tom-Skype network were being blocked, tracked and recorded on a cluster of eight computers located in China.
The system will block messages containing restricted words, record the message that contains the words, record the personal information of the person in China or caller ID's of voice conversations. The research did not find that actual voice conversations we being recorded though.
Sounding like an extension of the Golden Shield Project or Great Firewall (GFW) that blocks web sites containing similar restricted words, it seems that Chinese censors once again have big business by the balls. Tom Group is a Hutchinson Whampoa / Cheung Kong Holdings JV and Skype is owned by online auction giant eBay, certainly not organizations who would voluntarily expose themselves to law suits by unwittingly collecting and leaking user information.
The recorded chat conversations were discovered on the Tom Online computers due to a misconfiguration that allowed the files to be viewed with just a browser. This news comes only a week after Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales got face time with Cai Mingzhao, Vice Director of China's State Council Information Office, the office responsible for unblocking Wikipedia during the Olympics.
Oh and for the uber-geeks, here's the report by the guy from the Citizen Lab.
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There have been reports before by foreign journalists in Beijing whose Skype connections were cut during online interviews.
Skype encryption is a farce, it has probably been sacrificed to appease state security in exchange for market access.
Who said only your dear leader GW Bush could bug you?
Well, if your conversations get picked up by ECHELON it does not mean that you will get harassed by thugs on state pension or even face time in a Gulag without trial.
That is the difference, honey.
"by ECHELON"?
Seems all Americans like to sing the carol aloud when being screwed by ECHELON or by the very honest man who sold them and ask them to count payment for him. No wonder you voted him for a second term and still hated to be called idiot.
But the weird fact that Americans would prefer to be bugged with 3com servers rather than Chinese Huawei's always amazed me, as what happened in 2005 when Huawei failed to merge 3com, out of your pillow talk concern. I am pretty sure, the dead man walking in US would never choose from the way of execution among hanging, guillotine, injection, but where the electric-chair come from.
I love you funny people, son, forever.
@ leastman,
Could you try to write in a more confused manner than that?
@eastman
Please, this can not be true! You discuss electronic surveillance without knowing about Echelon? Don't you think this is a bit of a disqualification?
@eastman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON
I hope your government allows you to access this page.
For all of Echelon's abilities, the Golden Shield is much stronger and much more pro-active.
To Pirx,
Thanks for China government allowing me the access to Wiki as such ---"Term ECHELON is used in a number of contexts, but that the evidence presented indicates that it was the name for a signals intelligence collection system. The report concludes that, on the basis of information presented, ECHELON was capable of interception and content inspection of telephone calls, fax, e-mail and other data traffic globally through the interception of communication bearers including satellite transmission, public switched telephone networks and microwave links"
Now I know why you are proud of America even you are bugged. Because it only use less powerful ECHELON which at least doesnt bugs your text messages.
Feel grateful to a rapist like nanheyangrouchuan who raped you, but gentlemanly with a condom.
You know what? I almost started to worship your ECHELON, though I, unlike you, am dead sure your brother is bigger than China's.
@ nanheyangrouchuan
ECHELON collects data for evaluation. No censoring.
The 'Golden Shield' or 'Great Firewall' is to prevent access to data, censoring. Responsible is the Information Office.
The Internet Police of China is a tool against common Internet crime (there is PLENTY), run by the Public Security.
The interception of communication and evaluation of contents incl. eavesdropping on Skype, MSN, e-mail, decrypting PGP messages, intercepting VPN traffic etc. is a matter of state security agencies. There are several of these with apparently overlapping competencies, opaque, so that none of them gets powerful enough for shaping internal politics.
@ eastman
No matter how much misery, America is the land of the free.
It is a country, where
- Congress can impeach the president.
- you can practice free speech and not be locked up.
- every citizen has access to an independent judiciary and can sue the government.
- the constitutional court can overturn the governments decisions.
Where does all that leave China? Behind, unfortunately.
In 1949 China went for what was perceived by many as the most advanced model of society at that time. But today China tries to run Windows 3.1 on a top notch computer in a world of Windows Vista.
Recent comments from your leadership suggest, that the issue has been identified and a 'software upgrade process' seems to be in the making.
Hey Pirx
That old adage of America being the land of the free is a hoot!
Yes, you can do all of those things in America, but lets just look at the chaos of the financial system - banks falling like dominos because of a system that eschews regulation of all kinds so that the free people of America can have free reign to do as they please.
However, now that its all coming unstuck, the great irony is that China has indeed got Uncle Sam by his balls economically. So for all the free speech and 5th Amendments and god -forsaken idiotic constitution, America has really got itself into a peachy position right now.
Of course i do not condone any form of censorship or invasion of privacy, however as we all know, Microsoft is prone to bugs, so this Vista World is just ready for the next glitch. From memory, Windows 3.1 was a fairly stable system.
If America had 1.5 billion people living free to the constitution the place would be a bloody nightmare - pure anarchy. Not to mention how painful our lives would be with 5 times more Americans on the planet than currently are.
Anyway, any laowai who decides to live in China must face up to the fact that yes, there is likely some invasion of your privacy. So deal with it......
Forget 1.5 billion people living free to the constitution. With its 300 millions people, America already enjoyed the highest prison population, which Mr. Pirx called it land of free.
why is it that this eastman guy must always turn everything into a racial grudge match?
now on less racial notes-i noticed that they do screen phonecalls from skype as a few bad words were said on my behalf about my lack of interest in the olympics and my call was cut off 3 times.the 2nd 2 were just tests.this was skype to phone.but also incoming calls to mobiles are screened.as a friend tried to test to my mobile.oh well
big brother is watching-wherever u are!
eastman is just lonely and wishes he was white.
To Buck Rogerz,
Your honest statement just show your true colour, boy. lol!
@ leastman
"Feel grateful to a rapist like nanheyangrouchuan who raped you, but gentlemanly with a condom."
I didn't use a condom with you and you enjoyed it!
@ Pirx,
Yes, I know, I could watch ECHELON do its thing when I worked at ATT.
@ evo
Financial failures come and go, every time a chinese dynasty was conquered the conquerors found the imperial treasury empty.
The important thing about the US is that we all have the right to own and carry weapons. That is what keeps the gov't at bay when all else has failed. That and a military that is not a bunch of dumb attack dogs and would probably not participate in a domestic crackdown.
Problem with you is, with or without condom, you still cannot make your "little Cheney" useful, though taught in person by your step-dad Bushit.
@ evo
Well, actually complete anarchy is in fact a communist ideal, except that it believes in a sense of equality and responsibility that people do not have.
I think human rights are universal, government power and abuse thereof must not go unchecked, anywhere, ever.
Why is China today a better place than 1989?
@ evo
"From memory, Windows 3.1 was a fairly stable system."
Yes, at its time it was at the top of its class, but now it is obsolete and you can't run it on todays hardware. Talking about socialism....
@ nanheyangrouchuan
"Financial failures come and go, every time a chinese dynasty was conquered the conquerors found the imperial treasury empty.
The important thing about the US is that we all have the right to own and carry weapons. That is what keeps the gov't at bay when all else has failed. That and a military that is not a bunch of dumb attack dogs and would probably not participate in a domestic crackdown."
I have no doubt the coffers will be empty here when this current chinese dynasty falls.
However, i;m not convinced about your arguments about guns and the US military. Seems like going to school in America and looking at the wrong guy at the red light can be fatal pasttimes.
I feel safer walking down the street in Shanghai than most other cities in the world.
Bush and Cheney are the reason anyone doubts the freedoms America offers. They are the most insecure, idiotic and incapable leaders in our history and I want their names removed from every wall on every building that will inevitably have them. Where I want them is in the history texts so people can learn from these scourges and never repeat their lies. And while electronic eavesdropping is nothing new, training it on ordinary people is new and incredibly nasty and foolish. The East German state police did this sort of thing in a very analog way and look where it got them. It never works.
@Evo
"I feel safer walking down the street in Shanghai than most other cities in the world."
That is the standard line, except from those who have been gang jumped and robbed. Most Chinese fear the extra attention the PSB pays to those who commit crimes against foreigners, not because China is a safer country.
Generally, at this time, Shanghai is very safe -- I think for everyone, but that's always subject to change. As for the rest of China, I would suspect that crime rates vary a lot, although I don't know of any reliable source for statistics on crime (or anything for that matter) in China. Of course, many people believe that Shenzhen is an unsafe city, and I've met people from other parts of China who are very clear in stating that their hometowns are dangerous places -- sometimes adding, "but not unsafe for foreigners."
Names of Bush and Cheney could be removed from every wall, but world will always remember them, not the freedoms America offers.
Not forgetable are also the electronic eavesdropping and 8 long years of their governing, especially by people from countries that have never called themselves democracy.
@lange of course Cheney will be mainly remembered for shooting his buddy in the face