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.
"...TOM, just like any other communications company in China, has established procedures to meet local laws and regulations," Silverman wrote. "These regulations include the requirement to monitor and block instant messages containing certain words deemed "offensive" by the Chinese authorities. TOM, for its part, said only that the company adhered to Chinese rules and regulations, and declined to answer any further questions, Reuters reported.
The problem, according to Silverman, was that those messages were then stored by TOM on its own servers. Coincidentally, a security breach allowed third parties to gain access to those IMs, and copy them to servers outside the company. Naturally, many suspected that the Chinese government was monitoring communications.
"We were very concerned to learn about both issues and after we urgently addressed this situation with TOM, they fixed the security breach," Silverman wrote. "In addition, we are currently addressing the wider issue of the uploading and storage of certain messages with TOM."
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."
