AtomicBaboon!?!

With our government going unchecked whilst broadening its powers to spy on the world I am sure most everyone feels pretty helpless to do anything about it. However, it is possible for us to adjust the way we do things in order to keep Big Brother out of our business whether we have something to hide or not. There are ways to use encryption for voice communication. Skype is a popular VoIP (Voice over IP) peer-to-peer system for voice communication. You can get a Skype enabled phone, hook it up to your broadband connection at home, and use it a lot like a regular phone. When you call other Skype users it makes a peer-to-peer connection that is encrypted.

It's a good idea, but there are things about the way it has been implemented that make it a problem. All authentication for access to the Skype network takes place via a central server. This server stores all users public encryption keys. Because of this, Skype has the keys to decrypt conversations. It is possible to make a call to a traditional phone from Skype but all calls of that type have per minute charges applied to them that are in my opinion a bit steep. The protocol used is proprietary which "makes it much more difficult if not impossible for other developers to interact with Skype."

The point I am trying to make isn't that we should all run out and start using Skype. My point is that the technology is out there for We The People to take our power back. Call me a Libertarian Geek, but other than apathy (and I have plenty of that, believe me) there isn't a reason we can't thwart our governments efforts to spy on us. It's not about having something to hide. It's about what living in a surveillance society does to people psychologicaly. It's about protecting what freedom we have left. That's the way I see it anyway.