After TOM, makers of TOM-Skype – the Chinese version of the popular VoIP/messenger program, were caught with their pants down by Canadian web researchers, Skype Inc., which is owned by EBay, are trying to save face.
Skype publicly disclosed as early as 2006 that a filtering system was installed on the TOM-Skype client and that this system would filter out… “unsuitable” messages, but that these were “simply discarded and not…transmitted anywhere.” Contrary to Popular belief though, snooping around by Canadian researchers through poorly secured servers belonging to TOM discovered that – surprise, surprise – TOM-Skype is logging users’ information.
This includes any and all messages which include “sensitive” keywords such as “Communist party”, “Falun Gong”, “quit the CCP” and other such, in essence the same messages which are blocked from being sent by TOM-Skype. The Canadian team’s findings also suggest that the system also logs any messages by repeat-senders of the offensive keywords, even if these messages do not include the words.
In the wake of the worldwide uproar caused by naivetй, Skype president Josh Silverman stated that the US company was “very concerned” about these issues. He has good reason to be, but more with the bad publicity this brings on his company than the privacy of Chinese citizens.