eBay put Skype on iPhone 'to boost price of NSA backdoor'

Skype was pushed onto Apple's iPhone at the instigation of the VoIP app's corporate owner eBay, the Reg can exclusively reveal - in order to reap huge sums from government listening agencies interested in spying on Jesus-mobe-toting terrorists. The revelations come from a disgruntled eBay insider familiar with the matter, …

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice

April Fools!

[Rob Crawford]

OK then

how many april fool stories are we going to get today.

NSA servers in China, well really, I would have suggested somewhere more plausable.

[Tim Williams]

Hmmmm

April 1st seems to have arrived again.

[Jolyon Ralph]

Contacting the NSA

Don't you just lift the phone and talk without dialing?

Jolyon

[MattW]

Just remind me

what's the date :)

[David Webb]

Gosh!

How horrific to think of such things! It must be a mistake, or some kind of joke! Maybe the 1st joke of April?

[Graysonn]

April fools?

April fools?

[Peter Hawkins]

Nice try

I'll believe when I see the Playmobil.

[Dave]

Real Life Stranger than Fiction

The trouble with the world today is that too many unbelievable stories turn out to be real and the more reasonable ones are all fakes.

How much did the NSA pay you to run this one today, so that everyone will dismiss it as a joke and let them get on with listening in tomorrow without anyone believing that they are?

Remember, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you.

[grandvizier]

Nice

Far better than the Grauniads weak effort. Which is too dangerously close to the truth these days.

[The BigYin]

*Strokes beard*

I smell a fishy.....

[Anonymous Coward]

The 1st of April..

Best time to release news you want to be considered a joke.

[Jim Carter]

I'm not that daft.

I mean... seriously.

[Adam Foxton]

April fool or not?

I mean it's entirely plausible. Except that you heard of it and can't link to the informant's totally-accidental-honest-death obituary.

Even the Judas Phone name is plausible.

It sounds plausible- is IT?

[Stef]

* shudder *

"Man-at-each-end backdoor attack" - don't give them ideas!

[Anonymous Coward]

defective lava lamps

I can confirm that I have actually purchased a Lava Lamp from eBay and yes it was in fact defective. Not funny.

[Seanie Ryan]

its true

Its all true.

i actually know the employee in question. He is living in my house at the moment.

I was contracted last year to install BeOS onto those servers in China

And while talking on Skype this morning on my iPhone, when i said 'hammer' it suddenly launched 'Days of Thunder' (an american racing program BTW)

you may laugh now, but just wait....

[nigel]

Almost had me....

...right up until the data centres in china.

[CreamyInTheMiddle]

Man at each end

A "Man-at-each-end backdoor attack" - Urgh.... NSA spit-roast?

[Simon Langley]

Are there any real stories today?

All the stories today seem to be April Fools. I have just read 4 straight stories all of which seemed wholly implausible.

[RW]

Fail!

Too far-fetched to be believable.

Now, dear el-Reg employees, listen up! A successful April Fools "news article" should be utterly believable from beginning to end, and mercilessly deny clues to its fraudulent nature to all who lack knowledge of critical details (aka advanced boffinry). The most straightforward sign of success is that the story is picked up by the wire services and republished far and wide as genuine news.

Back to the drawing boards, lads and lasses, and better luck next year.

[Anonymous Coward]

and yet, sadly enough

I wouldn't trust the NSA to shine my shoes.

[Anonymous Coward]

If this wasn't on El Reg...

... I'd say this was an April's Fools joke. Surely a respectable publication like The Register would not stoop to such childish behavior?

Mine's the one with the note saying "Gullible Idiot" pinned to the back.