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While the majority of users love Skype, there have been concerns in the past about if Skype had a back door for eavesdropping.
#IS SKYPE SECURE FOR PRIVACY FREE#
These days for electronic communication and placing international calls, many people use the free Voice-over-IP (VoIP) provider Skype to talk, transfer files and video chat. The Bush wiretapping law gave the government the power to electronically snoop on Americans' international communications without needing a probable cause warrant - if an American was communicating with someone outside of the United States. The ACLU recently declared a victory when a federal appeals court revived a lawsuit challenging NSA surveillance and the constitutionality of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA). Perhaps NSA didn't cut people off mid-sentence, but it intercepted electronic communications and, with help from AT&T, engaged in warrantless surveillance of Americans during the Bush administration. Two callers, one speaking English and the other Chinese, have reported being cut off mid-sentence after saying "protest." Until Microsoft is completely transparent about what information they are or are not supplying to law enforcement, Skype users should assume the worse and take all necessary steps to protect themselves and their privacy.According to the NYTimes and Slashdot, there are reports of China stepping up electronic communications censorship beyond e-mail and the Internet in the form of "policing cellphone calls" such as if "antigovernment sentiment" words are spoken.
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Some users are already seeking other open-source solutions, like Jitsi, which provides end-to-end encryption and complete user security. The problem with Skype is the same problem as many phone companies that provide user information to law enforcement: they simply aren’t being candid with their users. Given the high number of law enforcement requests to phone companies for user information (over 1.3 million in 2011 alone), it is safe to assume that Skype can no longer provide an absolute level of privacy and security for their users.
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Their policy states that Skype “may provide personal data, communications content and/or traffic data to an appropriate judicial, law enforcement or government authority lawfully requesting such information.”Īnd a Skype spokesman recently released a statement which read as follows: “As was true before the Microsoft acquisition, Skype cooperates with law enforcement agencies as legally required and technically feasible.”Īt the very least, Skype has the technology to intercept user calls without their knowledge. And for whatever reason, Skype isn’t talking.īut Skype’s privacy policy isn’t exactly comforting. Here’s the problem: no one knows for sure whether or not Skype integrated this technology into their architecture. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft received a patent that allowed them to silently copy communication transmitted during Skype communication sessions. Last year, Microsoft bought Skype for nearly $9 billion. Even worse, Skype is not being candid about their relationship with law enforcement. The company was very proud of its strong user security record, and even publicly stated that it could not conduct wiretaps because of its secure encryption techniques.īut this apparently is no longer the case.Īnd security advocates are worried that Skype may be allowing law enforcement to spy on users. As a result, Skype calls are notoriously hard to intercept. Skype, which provides free online calls and cheap phone calls to hundreds of millions of people around the world, has always been known for using strong encryption and complex peer-to-peer network connections. For many years, Skype took user privacy very seriously.