In his weekly Michael’s Minute, my down the beach neighbor and friend Michael Robertson chides Skype for being implicit in the China snooping matter caused by Skype partner TOM.
The concept Michael points out as being so wrong is called “implied consent” and it basically means that by not taking steps to prevent something from occurring, by such inaction you’re granting permission to someone to do something. By pointing out that access to source code was needed, Michael basically says that Skype (and by its acquisition, eBay) is guilty of sharing the encryption key with TOM that reportedly resides in a safety deposit box in Luxembourg.