Kim Dotcom Targets Skype With Privacy-Centric MegaChat
Kim Dotcom, the man who negotiated a deal with hacking group Lizard Squad to cease fire on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network over Christmas break, has Skype in his crosshairs and is ready to pull the trigger. His weapon of choice? A competing browser-based chat service tentatively called MegaChat that he plans to launch soon.
The Mega founder made his intentions know via Twitter, though it's worth pointing out that he has a history of mentioning and hyping this same service without actually releasing it. And while there's still no concrete release date, he say this time around that it will be encrypted and offer "high-speed" file transfers when it does launch.
Dotcom has been critical of existing services like Skype, Gmail, iCloud, and others that fall short on privacy due to being based in the U.S. His argument is that the U.S. government is able to poke its nose and eyeballs into any of these services and demand access to data.
The Mega founder made his intentions know via Twitter, though it's worth pointing out that he has a history of mentioning and hyping this same service without actually releasing it. And while there's still no concrete release date, he say this time around that it will be encrypted and offer "high-speed" file transfers when it does launch.
Dotcom has been critical of existing services like Skype, Gmail, iCloud, and others that fall short on privacy due to being based in the U.S. His argument is that the U.S. government is able to poke its nose and eyeballs into any of these services and demand access to data.
Mega will soon release a fully encrypted and browser based video call & chat service including high-speed file transfers. Bye bye Skype :-)
— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) December 29, 2014He's been especially critical of Skype and has lofty ambitions of rendering Microsoft's VoIP service obsolete.
"No U.S. based online service provider can be trusted with your data. Skype has no choice. They must provide the U.S. government with backdoors," Dotcom explained in a follow up Twitter post.
When MegaChat will launch remains a mystery. Back in November 2013, Dotcom said it would arrive in early 2014, and here we are now approaching early 2015 with no MegaChat in sight. It's not clear why it's taking Dotcom so long to launch the service, though it could have something to do with his ongoing legal troubles.
"No U.S. based online service provider can be trusted with your data. Skype has no choice. They must provide the U.S. government with backdoors," Dotcom explained in a follow up Twitter post.
When MegaChat will launch remains a mystery. Back in November 2013, Dotcom said it would arrive in early 2014, and here we are now approaching early 2015 with no MegaChat in sight. It's not clear why it's taking Dotcom so long to launch the service, though it could have something to do with his ongoing legal troubles.
