masking voice over skype?

hello. sometimes i am need to make a phone call using skype and i dont want them to be able to identify my voice, for example to order or activate some thing or service. there are softwares available online that allow you to change your voice and/or modify it so it sounds stil natural and human but different from your original speaking voice. my question is if it is easy for someone else to 'reverse' or remove the effects that are applied by this software to my voice, and this way obtaining my real voice ? or is such software changes irreversible completely ? thanks

 

Skype was purchased by Microsoft. Microsoft then applied for a 'Legal Intercept' patent for Skype. There are so many things that give you away on a Skype connection, that your voice is probably the last thing that will give you away. I'm not saying that this isn't something to worry about (it's another layer), but I'd concentrate on all the data that creating and using a Skype account, that get's retained and scattered about...first. I guess you could have two accounts, one which you create on a separated OS (VM?) and only use over VPN and from Open Access Points. But there is still some correlation to be done by 'who' you call.

Try Microsoft Portrait over Hamachi if you can get your contacts to use Hamachi (and they have tightened it down to 5 users max, per network name, now) Portrait still runs on Win7 and can call an IP directly. Since Hamachi gives you a 5.x.x.x. IP address, it works well. You have to trust Hamachi obviously.

Portrait over VPN would be great if you can set up an OpenVPN server.

I keep searching for a modern, high quality, IP to IP VOIP app (not SIP)...but keep coming up dry. NCH has one too:

http://www.nch.com.au/talk/index.html

PD

 

Hello and thank you for the input. i will look into using something other than skype

however i am still interested to know if a changed sound can be 'reversed' if my conversation is recorded ? assuming i take care of everything else and the last layer for worrying about is my voice itself. if i change it with a good software changer, can i count that it cannot be reversed by any one? thank you

 

The answer is we don't know. Why? Because the government has been working on voice identifying technology for decades in secret and we have no idea how advanced the technology is. One should assume it is advanced enough that a mere tone change via a computer algorithm probably isn't enough to fool them.

Of course, it depends on *who* you are trying to hide from. If you're a witness in a mafia case or something, then your technique would probably be sufficient to fool the Gambini's. If you're hiding from NSA, I would not count on it.

 

I would suggest ditching Skype completely as mentioned above and if possible use text to voice generation program. That would be ideal because your voice is not even used to produce sound.
Of course it's not always possible to type away during live call. Using any off shelf product seems pointless to me also. I can think of only using custom presets in sound program like Audicity combined with analog made changes to your voice. But Im speaking of no first hand experience here.