AfterDawn: Tech news

Skype tightens privacy protection in China

Written by James Delahunty @ 29 Nov 2013 2:55

Skype tightens privacy protection in China

According to an advocacy group, Microsoft has made changes to Skype that will make monitoring and censorship of activity much more difficult in China.
The service had announced the end of an eight-year partnership with Hong Kong-based TOM Group, and has found a new partner in Guangming Founder (GMF), a joint-venture of Beijing-based newspaper Guangming Daily and the Founder Group.

According to advocacy group, GreatFire, Microsoft also has made changes to how its service works that should thwart Chinese monitoring and censorship activities.

"All user calls, chats and login information are encrypted and being communicated directly to Microsoft via HTTPS. This is a complete about-face for Microsoft from the TOM-Skype era, when all information was processed by TOM and stored by TOM on servers located in China with absolutely no privacy controls in place," the group said.

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