Out in the Open: Hackers Build a Skype That's Not Controlled by Microsoft

[Builder]

http://www.wired.com/2014/09/tox/

 

Good for you, 4chan, good for you. I'm going to have to give this a try

 

The web forum 4chan is known mostly as a place to share juvenile and, to put it mildly, politically incorrect images. But it’s also the birthplace of one of the latest attempts to subvert the NSA’s mass surveillance program.

 

When whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that full extent of the NSA’s activities last year, members of the site’s tech forum started talking about the need for a more secure alternative to Skype. Soon, they’d opened a chat room to discuss the project and created an account on the code hosting and collaboration site GitHub and began uploading code.

 

Eventually, they settled on the name Tox, and you can already download prototypes of the surprisingly easy-to-use tool. The tool is part of a widespread effort to create secure online communication tools that are controlled not only by any one company, but by the world at large—a continued reaction to the Snowden revelations. This includes everything from instant messaging tools to email services.

[DoubleY]

While I personally would use this, I don't know how to convince my friends to using it. 

[Judahnator]

Its worth a look at least. If only to get away from Skype, my experience there is horrible

[Vacsol]

tox has been dead for months now.

[TheKDub]

TOX..... seems like they just took TOR and changed the R to an X...

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Don't know how this is related to Skype. It's just another online messaging service, it's never gonna go anywhere.

[Tycho]

I might try this with a friend when skype goes even more downhill

[Vacsol]

TOX..... seems like they just took TOR and changed the R to an X...

...that's the point.

[Deletive]

I probably can't get my friends to leave skype so i'll probably just keep using skype.

[Vacsol]

my ID is B9177E581C222C116C10112BB8FA07BD33F6857F364B5B9F7A24B28A70800A393BF8534034F2 if anyone wants to add me

[Firearm2112]

So uh where can I download this?

[Builder]

Don't know how this is related to Skype. It's just another online messaging service, it's never gonna go anywhere.

With that attitude, you're right

 

It's a privacy-oriented alternative to Skype. A philosophical replacement, if you will.

[Vacsol]

So uh where can I download this?

http://tox.im

[Trik'Stari]

Willing to bet some of the people who helped developed this are in the NSA. Would not be surprising at all, that way they don't need to hack into it.

[wpirobotbuilder]

This is actually pretty easy to use. I'm excited to see where it goes.

 

Willing to bet some of the people who helped developed this are in the NSA. Would not be surprising at all, that way they don't need to hack into it.

Code review will catch anything obvious. Things that slip through the cracks will be relatively obscure.

[qwertywarrior]

repost

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/151716-possible-skype-alternative-tox/

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/186581-tox-a-free-simple-opensource-peer-to-peer-encrypted-instant-messaging-and-video-calling-software/

[qwertywarrior]

my ID is B9177E581C222C116C10112BB8FA07BD33F6857F364B5B9F7A24B28A70800A393B if anyone wants to add me

that ID is a bit too short

[qwertywarrior]

This is actually pretty easy to use. I'm excited to see where it goes.

 

Code review will catch anything obvious. Things that slip through the cracks will be relatively obscure.

also they are trying very hard to stay under 100k lines of code

reviewing code wont be hard as other software

[Vacsol]

that ID is a bit too short

B9177E581C222C116C10112BB8FA07BD33F6857F364B5B9F7A24B28A70800A393BF8534034F2

[Judahnator]

Ill play with it for a week or two. It looks like a great idea, and the UI is very nice and clean.

 

If i like it ill setup a dedicated node.

[Speedbird]

It's a shame that MS bought Skype. It was originally developed by a group of Estonians.

[Norman_the_Owl]

7B36447CF7F7FF0CA9D2A802775FD53531BC05C3221577275A1C5CEE01E6121740F38FEC2F5A

 

Hit me up i guess

[Builder]

Wow I guess I started something.

 

Sweet.

[Redheadsrule13]

Interesting. I don't like the way skype is right now. This sounds pretty excellent, however I doubt I could convince any of my friends to switch over.

[Mooshi]

You'd have to be lying to yourself if you can say with a straight face you trust MS owned Skype more than 4chan. While 4chan's user base can destroy something, it can also protect anything it finds sacred and pissing off the NSA is just one of those things. If this supports proper voice and video chat, I'm down.