Microsoft Wants to Patent High-Tech Snoop Software

technewsworld.com ^ | 06/29/11 12:16 PM PT | Richard Adhikari

[justlittleoleme]

A recently surfaced Microsoft patent focuses on technology that could be used to spy on VoIP users' conversations without the detection of participants. Redmond originally applied for the patent in 2009, well before its move to buy up VoIP provider Skype. This technology may have been developed with an eye to selling it to government agencies.

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has applied for a patent on technology that may let its user secretly intercept Voice over IP (VoIP) communications, amend the content and store it.

The application was filed in December 2009 and was recently made public.

The technology could allow the monitoring of conversations, voice messages and video conferences over a variety of devices, including smartphones, laptops and gaming devices.

This technology may have been developed with an eye to selling it to government agencies.

"Sometimes a government or one of its agencies may need to monitor communications between telephone users," the patent application reads.

[Wuli]

“A recently surfaced Microsoft patent focuses on technology that could be used to spy on VoIP users”

I just can’t imagine an organization that developed and sought to hold a near-monopoly on desk-top-computer operating systems being interested in such a patent!!! /sarc

[Da Coyote]

Rest easy.

It’ll work as well as the rest of Microsoft’s junk.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Sounds like a wiretap.

[He Rides A White Horse]

Let me guess. "If you are not guilty of anything, then you should have nothing to worry about."

You know, that familiar totalitarian canard.

[JoeFromSidney]

If Microsoft can do it, so can NSA. We just lost another bit of privacy.