FollowMega has started beta testing for its new video calling service that will be encrypted and integrates with its existing sharing and filing hosting offerings.
The new service know as MegaChat only supports video and voice calling at this point, but video conferencing and text chat will be available soon, said Kim Dotcom, the Mega founder on a Twitter post.
The new service runs inside a web browser, not via a dedicated application. It is free and could be launched from the mega.nz website by just clicking on the button for new conversations on the toolbar to the left after logging on.
One of the service’s most important feature is that is uses encryption from end to end.
This means Mega should not have any access to the encryption keys of users and should not have the ability to decrypt any communications.
No online service provider based in the U.S. can be trusted with personal data, said Dotcom a month ago when he revealed his plans to launch MegaChat.
The online providers are required to provide the government of the U.S. with backdoors, claimed Dotcom when he started to position MegaChat as an alternative to Skype.
Dotcom is not a friend of the government of the U.S. by any means. The U.S. is attempting to extradite home out of New Zealand to face charges of copyright infringement as well as others in connection with activity of Megaupload his former business.
In addition, the encryption from end to end only protects against upstream surveillance if no errors or intentional backdoors are in the implementation.
Therefore, until cryptography experts and security researchers have an opportunity to look at the implementation of Mega, it would be best not to use its services for communications that are highly sensitive, suggested on security analyst.
MegaChat is currently going through its testing phase at the moment and it would not be unusual to find bugs anyway.
On Thursday, Dotcom announced on Twitter that Mega offers security bounties. If anyone finds security flaws, the company will fix it and reward the person who found them.
