Skype's president has acknowledged that users in China have had instant messages both blocked and copied to servers owned by TOM Online, Skype's partner in the country.
According to Skype president Tom Silverman, Skype knew when it partnered with TOM that TOM would censor instant-messages containing certain keywords, according to rules set down by the Chinese government. Although Skype provides the underlying software code, TOM is considered to be the majority partner in China.In his blog post, Silverman reminded Skype's customers that the company had no intention of spying on customers that used the official version of Skype outside of China...
As Reuters noted, however, the TOM-Skype version of the Skype software is the only version that can be accessed inside the company.
"It's important to remind everybody that the issues highlighted in yesterday's Information Warfare Monitor / ONI Asia report refer only to communications in which one or more parties are using TOM software to conduct instant messaging," Silverman added. "It does not affect communications where all parties are using standard Skype software. Skype-to-Skype communications are, and always have been, completely secure and private." (maybe not) (more)
