Wiretapping sounds so innocent. Of course, all US comms must be available for lawful wiretaps in fight against crime.
No, what we're dealing with here is a dragnet cast upon the comms of users around the world, who aren't protected by US Constitution and thus can be tapped at will by US agencies and even private corporations without any warrants or oversight.
For instance, if Microsoft wanted to learn about technical or trade secrets of competitors communicating through Skype (say, a couple of start-up founders), now they're free to do it.
Also, if a US agency wanted to put on a no-fly list some people who casually converse about what morons those TSA people are or how all US administrations support the Israeli regime that commits war crimes against Palestinians, now it's very easy to do.
For instance, if Microsoft wanted to learn about technical or trade secrets of competitors communicating through Skype (say, a couple of start-up founders), now they're free to do it.
Is that any different from using, say, Gmail or Google Apps? Not saying that Google is looking at that data but this is a problem with essentially every web-based communication tool. People shouldn't have an expectation of privacy or security just because it's a company they know/like or it's a popular tool.
I've long thought that Google's ability to track searches from Microsoft IP addresses was one of the reasons for the development of Bing - i.e. Bing's value is, in part, that it plugs an information leak and siphons other leaks into Microsoft's data mine.
For instance, if Microsoft wanted to learn about technical or trade secrets of competitors communicating through Skype (say, a couple of start-up founders), now they're free to do it.
Do you seriously think trade secrets aren't enforceable outside US borders? That there's no such thing as a transnational tort claim? Do you also think that because the "Constitution doesn't protect" stuff that Microsoft can randomly steal from people? Can they murder people too?
You knew this was a batshit claim when you saw someone trying to map the Constitution to Microsoft in the first place, since the Constitution doesn't regulate private businesses at all.
What does ECHELON and military drones have to do with civil liability?
The root comment in this thread suggests that Microsoft might be centralizing Skype so that it can scrape trade secrets out of phone calls. That sentiment is based on a preposterous misapprehension about how international law works.
(I'm pretty sure you are directing all of your "you"s mostly to others in the thread so I will ignore the impatient and condescending tone)
You aren't very specific though. I'm not familiar with transnational tort claim and I doubt it as popular to others here in HN either. Is it as solid as you seem to make it? Google has little (easily accessible material) on it. It doesn't sound like something that is illegal by itself; only that they could be sued by those startups if/when they find out (and decide to saddle up for an international case against a huge company... yeah that probably isn't very likely).
Good luck finding a lawyer who has the skills to perform an international tort offense who charges less than six figures for it. Only a company like Microsoft has the cash to pull that off.
No, what we're dealing with here is a dragnet cast upon the comms of users around the world, who aren't protected by US Constitution and thus can be tapped at will by US agencies and even private corporations without any warrants or oversight.
For instance, if Microsoft wanted to learn about technical or trade secrets of competitors communicating through Skype (say, a couple of start-up founders), now they're free to do it.
Also, if a US agency wanted to put on a no-fly list some people who casually converse about what morons those TSA people are or how all US administrations support the Israeli regime that commits war crimes against Palestinians, now it's very easy to do.