A group of Canadian researchers of internet censorship have exposed Internet surveillance by premier voice-over-Internet company Skype Communications in alliance with its Chinese partner, Tom Online, Inc.
The researchers, belonging to the group Citizen Lab, based at the University of Toronto in Canada, found large logs of monitoring records that contained information about text messages sent and received over the Skype application.
While most of the monitoring records had information from users of the TOM-Skype software, which is the only downloadable version of Skype in mainland China, the data of users outside mainland China who communicated with Skype friends inside China had also been recorded.
TOM-Skype is a modified version of Skype that was built by Tom Online, Inc. under Skype’s auspices for distribution in the Chinese mainland. Clicking on the “Download” link on Skype’s website from computers in mainland China automatically leads users to this version of Skype, according to reports.
The Citizen Lab findings reflect what Internet privacy experts have been worrying about for a long time—that Skype is providing information to the Chinese regime, helping it crack down on citizens’ rights.
The findings were reported by Nate Villeneuve, who was also a lead developer of psiphon, a networking software that allows Internet users in China to access banned websites through proxy servers overseas.
A large number of the keywords that Mr. Villeneuve found involved wordings related to political or dissident content.
The report released by Citizen Lab is titled “Breaching Trust” and contains details of the findings of the Citizen Lab team.
They found that the “captured messages contain specific keywords relating to sensitive political topics such as Taiwan independence, the Falun Gong, and political opposition to the Communist Party of China.”
The log files that the team found contained information such as IP addresses, usernames, and land-line phone numbers, as well as the full content of the messages.
Skype responded to the Citizen Lab report by apologizing for the security loophole that allowed Citizen Lab to collect the information, but also made clear in its statement that it was cooperating the Chinese regime in collecting this information.
In a statement that was mailed to several media including the Wall Street Journal, Skype asserted, “The idea that the Chinese [government] might be monitoring communications in and out of the country shouldn’t surprise anyone, and in fact, it happens regularly with most forms of communication such as emails, traditional phone calls, and chats between people within China and between people communicating to people in China from other countries.
“Nevertheless, we were very concerned to hear about the apparent security issue which made it possible for people to view chat information among mainly Tom users, and we are pleased that, once we informed Tom about it, that they were able to fix the flaw.”
The researchers, belonging to the group Citizen Lab, based at the University of Toronto in Canada, found large logs of monitoring records that contained information about text messages sent and received over the Skype application.
While most of the monitoring records had information from users of the TOM-Skype software, which is the only downloadable version of Skype in mainland China, the data of users outside mainland China who communicated with Skype friends inside China had also been recorded.
TOM-Skype is a modified version of Skype that was built by Tom Online, Inc. under Skype’s auspices for distribution in the Chinese mainland. Clicking on the “Download” link on Skype’s website from computers in mainland China automatically leads users to this version of Skype, according to reports.
The Citizen Lab findings reflect what Internet privacy experts have been worrying about for a long time—that Skype is providing information to the Chinese regime, helping it crack down on citizens’ rights.
The findings were reported by Nate Villeneuve, who was also a lead developer of psiphon, a networking software that allows Internet users in China to access banned websites through proxy servers overseas.
A large number of the keywords that Mr. Villeneuve found involved wordings related to political or dissident content.
The report released by Citizen Lab is titled “Breaching Trust” and contains details of the findings of the Citizen Lab team.
They found that the “captured messages contain specific keywords relating to sensitive political topics such as Taiwan independence, the Falun Gong, and political opposition to the Communist Party of China.”
The log files that the team found contained information such as IP addresses, usernames, and land-line phone numbers, as well as the full content of the messages.
Skype responded to the Citizen Lab report by apologizing for the security loophole that allowed Citizen Lab to collect the information, but also made clear in its statement that it was cooperating the Chinese regime in collecting this information.
In a statement that was mailed to several media including the Wall Street Journal, Skype asserted, “The idea that the Chinese [government] might be monitoring communications in and out of the country shouldn’t surprise anyone, and in fact, it happens regularly with most forms of communication such as emails, traditional phone calls, and chats between people within China and between people communicating to people in China from other countries.
“Nevertheless, we were very concerned to hear about the apparent security issue which made it possible for people to view chat information among mainly Tom users, and we are pleased that, once we informed Tom about it, that they were able to fix the flaw.”
