Skype

Skype is an Internet video, voice and text chat network and application. Initially, Skype was a mostly decentralised service that delivered your calls by forming a network amongst Skype users. As a result, your calls rarely went through the company's own servers. Today, Skype is owned and operated by Microsoft and is a fully centralized network: all calls are routed through Skype's servers, and Skype (as well as US surveillance and law enforcement organizations such as the NSA and the FBI) have the capability to intercept your calls and messages. In 2012, Skype handed over an activist's personal information to authorities without a warrant, violating its own privacy policy. Skype is a closed protocol so others can not easily tell how it works, evaluate its security or build “skype compatibility” into alternative tools. The Skype source code is also disguised to prevent other software developers from understanding how it works.

Last Updated: 21 Sep 2015

Skype is an Internet video, voice and text chat network and application. Initially, Skype was a mostly decentralised service that delivered your calls by forming a network amongst Skype users. As a result, your calls rarely went through the company's own servers.

Today, Skype is owned and operated by Microsoft and is a fully centralized network: all calls are routed through Skype's servers, and Skype (as well as US surveillance and law enforcement organizations such as the NSA and the FBI) have the capability to intercept your calls and messages. In 2012, Skype handed over an activist's personal information to authorities without a warrant, violating its own privacy policy.

Skype is a closed protocol so others can not easily tell how it works, evaluate its security or build “skype compatibility” into alternative tools. The Skype source code is also disguised to prevent other software developers from understanding how it works.