Can Governmental Authorities Track and Trace Internet Phone Calls?
It was recently discovered by an avid internet phone user, that the free internet phone software – Skype – has a secret backdoor allowing for the tapping and monitoring of calls made by a specific internet phone user. This revelation shocked the internet phone users across the world, and was certainly a very difficult issue for the software owning company to address.
Whether or not the software loophole was programmed in purposely or not remains a mystery to this day. Many suspect that the software developer didn’t have the intention to make internet phone calls traceable, however when they themselves discovered that the was an issue with their own system, they failed to take the necessary steps to close it up.
Whilst this initial loophole has now been closed because of the public pressure surrounding the whole situation, it certainly makes you think whether or not there are other back door routes for the authorities to use.
Implications Of Internet Phone Tracking.
Even though most people couldn’t care less whether their phone calls were tracked or not, a few people do indeed stand up for the constitutional right of privacy. For these people, the suspicions of further internet phone tracking methods have prompted a number of online protests and discussion forums to be started.
These groups of people are promoting two things:
1. Internet phone should be subjected to the same privacy laws as land based phones.
2. Unauthorized spying on internet phone calls is illegal.
Whilst the protests have temporarily succeeded in publicising the need for further regulation of the internet telephone industry, the negative perspective that this type of news results in has indeed damaged the momentum of the uptake rates.
People Are Being Put Off By The Threat Of Spying.
In a recent survey, respondents noted that they were indeed delaying the switch to internet phone services because of a lack of regulation and safety in the industry. In recent times however, the situation has improved dramatically with the introduction of a host of new measures designed to streamline the internet phone services.
Whether or not this will prompt the start of a new phase of internet phone service migration is yet to be seen, however the chances of such an occurrence are indeed likely.
