Skype spying on computers of Skype users

Researcher Jeffrey Knockel from the University of New Mexico established the existence of censorship mechanism in the Chinese version of Skype, the publication reported Businessweek.

According Nokela, Chinese Skype distribution contains a module with built-in keylogger, checks the text that they contain undesirable words, and send collected logs supposedly secret services.

It is worth noting that China has the exclusive right to distribute Skype has local distribution company TOM-Skype, a daughter of Chinese Internet provider TOM Online.

The list of banned words for Chinese users Nokelu been set, watching the activity of your network when entering presumably censor words. In addition, he was able to find meaningful sequence of characters in the analysis of daily updated encrypted database keywords.


Among the words that are not recommended for use of Chinese users to Skype, Nokel allocated Tiananmen (Tiananmen Square, where in 1989 was suppressed protest action), the names of organizations Human Rights Watch, «Reporters without Borders», BBC News, location of planned actions and t . etc.

Topic messages in Skype censorship rises not the first time. In January 2013 she appeared in connection spismom activist groups, including more than 40 organizations and 60 individuals, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, "Reporters without Borders"  hack-community Telecomix and other groups. The letter was sent to the current owner of Skype - Microsoft.

The reason for their concern was the agreement between Skype and Chinese Internet provider TOM Online, which together provide Chinese users with a customized version of Skype-client that looks no different from other versions.

The signatories have suggested that the Chinese version of Skype distributed embedded filter that blocks unwanted text messages. Thus, the user can not guess Skype that works under the supervision of the Chinese security forces.

The letter contained the hypothesis that the policy Skype could change with the purchase of services from Microsoft in the summer of 2011 they demanded that Microsoft disclose regular reports on the actions of the personal data of users, and the publication of information about how often it needs to come government, and what data they want to receive.