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If you think the company that has agreed to collaborate with a Chinese company to make a different version of Skype (Tom-Skype), for the sole purpose of letting
by higherpurpose 12y ago
If you think the company that has agreed to collaborate with a Chinese company to make a different version of Skype (Tom-Skype), for the sole purpose of letting the Chinese government spy on Chinese citizens' communications in real-time, can be "trusted" to not have backdoored cloud services in China, then I have a bridge to sell you.
Microsoft has proven again and again that it's willing to make any concessions to the Chinese government if there's the slightest chance of them making an extra percent market share in China. We saw that when Google was hacked by the Chinese government, too. Microsoft was more than happy to agree to all the censorship policies Google didn't, because it meant that maybe possibly that would earn them some market share in China, after Google would be gone - it didn't anyway. Baidu took all that difference Google lost.
- song 12y agoTo be fair Tom-Skype predates Microsoft's buyout of Skype.
- Steuard 12y agoThis isn't just about earning market share in China. Just about any organization that operates in China (or hopes to) has a vested interest in, e.g., having reliable email access there. If your company uses Google products for email, etc., then these days you'll have some real challenges making them work for folks over there. Microsoft can capture a lot of American business that way. (Concrete fears about employees losing crucial access tend to outweigh philosophical arguments about government surveillance when folks sit down to make these decisions.)